Here Come The Brides
by twiniitowers
Summary: 05/22/03-!Finished!-Story word count is higher than what is listed.
1. Kitty's Plan

You are cordially invited to the weddings of Donna Pinciotti & Eric  
  
Forman/Jackie Burkhart & Steven Hyde  
  
July 22, 2000  
  
Chapter 1 Kitty's Plan  
  
May  
  
Eric threw on his UofW hoodie as he ran down the stairs and greeted Donna in the parking lot of his St. Louis apartment complex. Today was the day she was moving in.  
  
"Hi," He said as he kissed her on the lips.  
  
"Hi," Donna replied as she handed Eric her car keys to get some of her boxes out of the trunk as she got what was crammed in the backseat. "Eric-did you get a phone call from your Mom today?"  
  
"She calls me everyday since-yeah. About visiting them on Saturday?"  
  
"I got the same call. Is she up to something?"  
  
"You know how excited she gets over planning parties." Eric took the box marked 'records' out of the trunk and placed it next to the pile of boxes by the side of the car realizing he should have borrowed one of those pull carts from maintance.  
  
"I hope it's not about to discuss a shower for me, I don't want one they're so phony." She remembered the last one all it was, was a bunch of giggling females giving naughty nighties and sex manuals.  
  
"I doubt that's it. Why would she make me come along?"  
  
"To see your cute face." Donna playfully slapped his cheek.  
  
"Can't argue with that, Donna." Eric playfully slapped her back as he went to get a pull cart for Donna's boxes.  
  
Saturday  
  
Kitty revealed her plan to Red as his face was in the paper.  
  
"Oh, Kitty!"  
  
"Now, Red.Not a word. I think this will work out."  
  
"Sticking ones nose in where it doesn't belong doesn't make things work out."  
  
"Well, my nose does belong. And not a word to the kids when they get here." It was a five hour drive from St Louis to Point Place.  
  
"So that's what that dinner was about with the other two!"  
  
"Yes-and no. But also to show Steven and Jackie that we support them, too."  
  
Red never thought Steven Hyde would marry anybody never mind that little chatterbox from the basement  
  
AFTER DINNER:  
  
"Eric go away, I want to talk woman talk with Donna." Kitty pushed him out of the kitchen as soon as he set some dishes down on the counter.  
  
"Okay," Eric did a "tell-me-later" wink but it looked like he had something in his eye.  
  
"What is it Mrs. Forman? If it's about Eric you can tell he obviously hasn't touched any drugs."  
  
Kitty knocked on the counter to keep it that way.  
  
"Nothing like that, Donna. Did you and Eric set a date for the wedding?"  
  
"I was thinking of August."  
  
"August is lovely, but did you consider July? July's better."  
  
What was Kitty Forman up to? Donna thought. Why would the date matter?  
  
"Why?" Her journalistic instincts kicked in as Kitty set two tea cups on the table let Red and Eric do the dishes later.  
  
"It's Red. He said he could get a better deal on the reception hall."  
  
"If it's money---"  
  
"We won't hear of it, Donna. We helped your Dad with the first wedding, this one's on us-our gift to you two."  
  
There had to be more to this.  
  
"Thank you, Mrs. Forman. I suppose you have the date all ready picked out don't you?"  
  
"Yes, July 22. All you two have to do is show up," Kitty laughed, "How about some cinnamon swirl cake to go with that tea?"  
  
"Sure."  
New York City  
  
"Hold still, Steven!" Jackie was pinning his tuxedo.  
  
"Not if you keep pinning me and not the suit, Jackie!"  
  
"Don't you want to look good for our wedding?"  
  
"I swear if you pout, I'm getting off this stool."  
  
Jackie slapped his rear. "I doubt that. You didn't mind Mrs. Forman changing the wedding date did you?"  
  
"No." Hyde was 95% recovered from his hospital stay. He was still in physical therapy, they wanted him to walk with a cane but he thought there was a better chance for a blizzard in Jupiter. There was once a teacher in Point Place High named Mrs. Williams who carried a cane and acted like she was in the Gestapo. Also the most important factor of all-it didn't look cool. He also still despised his former best friend Eric Forman. Kitty said he clean and sober and he respectfully said he didn't care.  
  
12:00AM  
  
"Eric wake up," Donna gently shook him.  
  
"Wha-t is it, Donna?" He wiped his eyes. They were staying the night because Kitty preferred if they didn't drive back to St. Louis overnight.  
  
"I think I just figured out what your Mother's up to. Oh f***." She sighed.  
  
"What? It can't be that bad? I'd marry you right now. Who needs the all the pomp and circumstance?"  
  
"You care to do a little detective work?" Donna got out of bed and put on her robe.  
  
"What do you think my Mother's done?" Eric asked, also getting out of bed.  
  
"Ssh, Eric, you talk too much."  
  
'You're the one that woke me up out of a sound sleep babbling about my Mother' he thought.  
  
They went downstairs and Eric followed Donna into the dining room that's where she saw it last after dinner. Eric put the light on as Donna grabbed the yellow legal pad off the side table and turned the pages.  
  
"I knew it. Eric you have to promise me you won't freak."  
  
"What could my Mother have done so bad that has us sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night?"  
  
"Here you read it." She handed Eric the tablet, hoping his reaction wouldn't be too drastic.  
  
"July 22, 2000-Weddings of Donna Pinciotti and Eric Forman and--- Jackie Burkhart and Steven Hyde-Oh Christ." Eric replied calmly putting the tablet down back where it was off the side table. He started to walk back upstairs.  
  
"Eric," Donna ran after him, "What are we going to do about this?"  
  
"Elope." He said as he crashed on his bed. She couldn't tell if he was being serious or not.  
  
"Eric," Donna slid in next to him, "are you serious or just tired?"  
  
"I love you," he kissed her on the lips trying to stifle a yawn, "We'll talk about this in the morning."  
Donna got up extra early to start packing so they could get ready to go back to St Louis and was hoping that if she made enough noise Eric would wake up.  
  
"Donna, what time is it?" Eric groaned in his pillow  
  
"Five thirty."  
  
"If God meant for us to be up now it wouldn't be dark outside."  
  
"We really should talk about this before your parents wake up."  
  
Eric sat up as he rubbed his eyes.  
  
"What am I supposed to say? You know Mom is trying to fix what happened between Hyde and me. For that I love her. But there's no way we're getting married on that date."  
  
"Do you have to be so stubborn?" Donna folded the shirts she didn't wear back in the suitcase.  
  
"Me?"  
  
"And don't pull any victim crap Eric, because this has nothing to do with your rehab."  
  
"What?" He sank back down in the bed.  
  
"I shouldn't have worded it like that. Sorry. What I'm saying is you two will have to be in the same room with each other sooner or later. "  
  
"And it should be on OUR wedding day? No way." Eric stood up torn between brushing his teeth, peeing, or continuing this argument with his fiancée.  
  
"I'm going to take the suitcase to the car. Use the duffle bag as a hamper." Donna sighed changing the subject as she left the room.  
  
'Damn Hyde, even when you aren't here you are a pain in the ass' Eric thought as he grabbed his clean clothes off the chair.  
  
Jackie was drinking a coffee and eating a croissant when Donna called her.  
  
"Hi, Donna. How are you and the scrawny boy?"  
  
"Fine. Listen we have to talk----"  
"Mom, we have to talk." Kitty was up early when she heard their muffled voices talking and preceded to make Eric a big breakfast.  
  
"About what, honey? God, you're still as skinny as a rail."  
  
"People say ten pounds are hard to lose, I think it's more difficult to gain five." Eric quipped, pouring the cereal.  
  
"But you look good."  
  
Eric blushed. "Thanks. Mom, we need to talk about something that you think is going to happen, but it's not going to happen."  
  
"What are you talking about? How would you like your eggs?"  
  
"Mom-Donna and I know about your plan. You were going to have to tell us sooner or later. I mean we would have found out."  
  
Kitty broke the eggs with a fork and decided to scramble them in the pan.  
  
"Why can't you and Steven put your differences aside for one special day?" Kitty asked  
"Steven won't do go for it, either. I don't even have to ask him, I know what he'll say." Jackie said, putting her empty coffee cup in the sink.  
  
Jackie forgave Eric for what he had done. She never told him to his face or on the phone and she hasn't talked to him in a very long time but in her mind she knew he was high as he never would have done it otherwise. She was just angry seeing Steven in the hospital clinging for life that she started to hate Eric for what he had caused. And as far as the first fight went Steven was the one who did the damage, even though Eric started that one too and was just as hell-bent to kill Steven that day, too. Even though he wasn't on Coke then. It was all just one big mess and Jackie didn't want to hate Eric over it. Life was too short. Steven was alive and they were together so she didn't want to hold grudges.  
  
"So are you saying you don't want a double wedding?" Donna asked sitting in Eric's car.  
  
"Not if Steven and Eric are only going to fight with each other I don't."  
  
Jackie replied honestly.  
"I thought it would be a nice idea." Kitty gave Eric his plate.  
  
"I know you did Mom and we love you for it. But, Hyde and I are broken-and it's really not worth fixing."  
  
'I think it is' Kitty thought, switching to plan B as she poured herself a coffee and sat down to eat breakfast with her son.  
"Here let me help you with that, Red."  
  
'Oh no' Donna mouthed from the car.  
  
What was Hyde doing here? Jackie didn't mention anything about Hyde visiting the Forman's on the phone. She watched Red and Hyde carry some things to the garage before she quietly got out of the car to get to Eric before they saw each other.  
  
"That was good Mom, thanks." Eric got up and kissed her on the cheek.  
  
"You're welcome, honey," Kitty replied as Donna slowed her pace and entered from the kitchen door.  
  
"Morning, Donna. Would you like some breakfast?"  
  
"No thanks, Mrs. Forman. I'll just have some juice." Donna replied to make Kitty happy.  
  
"Eric, can I see you in the living room?" asked Donna  
  
"You two can talk here, I'm going upstairs to make the beds." Kitty replied guessing they probably were going to talk about setting a wedding date.  
  
"Is everything okay, Donna?"  
  
"I think we should leave now, I'll bring the car out front. Where are your keys?"  
  
"In my pocket, why?" Eric put his dishes in the sink, he looked out the window to see Hyde and his Dad coming out of the garage.  
  
Donna grabbed the duffle bag and her overnighter off the floor watching Eric's face twitch nervously.  
  
"Why should I have to leave to accommodate him? This is my house."  
  
"This is not the time to be stubborn." Donna replied.  
  
"Donna, that's twice in one day you've called me that."  
  
"Because I think you want to confront Hyde. Now are we leaving or not?"  
  
Eric took a deep breath and was about to speak when Red and Hyde entered the kitchen.  
  
'F***' thought Hyde.  
  
"Hey, Donna." Hyde acknowledged. It wasn't her he loathed.  
  
She could only nod a 'hello' back. "The keys, Eric?"  
  
"I'll take them to the car."  
  
At that moment Kitty walked in "Steven!" she gushed happily and gave him a hug as Eric took the rest of the bags to the car rolling his eyes half expecting Red to slap him upside the head on the way out.  
  
"I'm proud of you, Eric." Donna followed as Donna opened the back car door to take the suitcase out as Eric opened the trunk.  
  
"Why? Because I didn't punch him in the mouth?" (or worse)  
  
When they put their bags in the trunk Donna put her arms around Eric letting her hands travel inside his shirt resting them on the small of his back, kissing him.  
  
"We are going to have to say goodbye to your parents."  
  
"We can phone them." Eric jingled his keys.  
  
"No," Eric made a smirky face as Donna held his hand. "You don't think Hyde's really going to start a scene do you?"  
  
'Yeah, I do' Eric thought.  
When Eric and Donna were on their way back to St. Louis and Red went to watch TV and Kitty kept feeding Steven ('my god, don't these Kids ever eat?' she thought)  
  
"I couldn't eat another bite, Mrs. Forman." Hyde said  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
He laughed. "I'm sure, thanks. Mrs. Forman there's something I need to tell you."  
  
"What is it, Steven?"  
  
"Jackie called me while I was on my way here and told me about your idea for a double wedding. We know you meant well, but it's really not a good idea." That was difficult for Hyde to say he's loved his woman more than his own Mother and he didn't want to hurt her.  
  
Kitty sighed, "I just wanted you and Eric to be friends again." She didn't want to cry, but all she saw in her mind were images of Eric and Steven when they were little kids. They were like brothers to each other. She didn't know what to do there could be no plan 'B' because nothing could get them to talk to each other again. At least thankfully they didn't come to blows today.  
  
"But Jackie and I thought we could get married on July 20th as long as THEY choose another date." Hyde nervously twisted his pinky ring.  
  
Kitty put the dirty dishes in the sink, "If that's what you kids want." It hurt her deeply to see her son and the other boy she loved like a son not talking to each other.  
  
Hyde knew this hurt Kitty he could tell, he knew what real disappointment was like.  
  
"I'm sorry," he got up and hugged her "I wish the situation was different if only for you."  
  
"Thanks, Steven." Kitty let one tear fall down her cheek.  
. 


	2. But Then Again To Few To Mention

Chapter 2 But Then Again To Few To Mention  
  
Mid-May  
  
Jackie put a fresh vase of roses on the centerpiece on the living room coffee table the fragrant aroma filling the whole living room.  
  
"Mommy, are they here yet?" asked Jackie's daughter, Tiffany who looked just like a mini-Jackie even though she liked to do un-Jackie like things like play in the mud and climb trees even after she broke her leg.  
  
"Not yet, honey," Jackie looked at her watch, "They should be coming soon."  
  
Hyde was in Los Angeles producing some goth/angst band that she never heard of. Which gave Jackie the perfect opportunity to invite Donna and Eric for the weekend. Eric never would have set foot in her spacious apartment otherwise. Donna must have asked her a thousand times in a rather un-Donna like fashion "are you sure Hyde isn't going to come home early?" They were both worried about Eric and Hyde being in the same room together.  
  
The intercom rang.  
  
"Ms. Burkhart, there's a Donna Pinciotti and Eric Forman here to see you."  
  
"Send them up, James. They're my guests for the weekend."  
  
Jackie told her daughter not to run as she opened the door to wait for the elevators to open.  
  
"Welcome to the Burkhart residence!" Tiffany said as the doors opened.  
  
"This is my daughter, Tiffany."  
  
"Hi." Eric said, shaking her little hand  
  
"You're cute!"  
  
Donna laughed watching Eric blush. "Hello." Donna said wishing she had the natural rapport that Eric had with kids.  
  
"Where's all your suitcases?" Tiffany asked, "When Mommy travels she brings ten!"  
  
Jackie kissed her daughter's head. "Where does she come up with this stuff?"  
  
"This is a beautiful apartment, Jackie." Donna said noting the size of the foyer was as a big as her and Eric's bedroom in St. Louis!  
  
Eric put their suitcases down. One for himself and one for Donna not bad.  
  
"Don't you think it's too big?" Eric asked  
  
"That's because you want the little house you grew up in." Donna replied  
  
"And where did you grow up? The Biltmore Estate?" Eric quipped back.  
  
"Oh-the Biltmore Estate that's so beautiful! I could've easily lived there." Jackie hated how people seemingly gave up living in these enormous mansions and the surviving family or the State turned them into tourist attractions for the lower and middle classes. If she had a true mansion she'd have lived in it and never have sold it!  
  
"Mommy, where's the Biltmore Estate?" asked Tiffany  
  
"Asheville, North Carolina." Jackie replied a little too quickly that Donna wanted to ask her who was the 30th President of the United States?  
  
"It'd be awesome to live in Graceland." Donna said as Jackie showed Eric and Donna to their guest room.  
  
"Graceland? Donna, did you see the jungle room? Elvis had very gaudy taste." Eric replied thinking 'god, this place is way too big to get comfortable and cozy in'.  
  
"Mommy, who's Elvis?"  
  
"A singer from the '50s."  
  
"Was that your time?"  
  
"No, dear! I'm not that old! I was a teenager in the '70s."  
  
Eric and Donna laughed, it was cute seeing Jackie as a parent.  
  
"This is the guest room?" Donna asked  
  
"You should see MY room it's fabulous. I could never give up this apartment."  
  
"I still think it's too big." Eric sighed, opening up his suitcase.  
  
"Okay! We'll let you two get settled. I hope you are hungry. I made two o'clock reservations at the restaurant at the hotel across the street."  
  
"Aww! Mommy does that mean I have to wear a dress and Mary Jane's?"  
  
"Yes, it does. Don't you like being a little girl, Tiffany?"  
  
"Not if I have to dress like one!" Donna liked the little girls independent mind  
  
"Okay. Why don't you say goodbye to Donna and Eric."  
  
"Bye Donna! Bye ERIC!" She waved.  
  
"Isn't that so cute? Tiffany has a crush on you!" Donna was going to collapse with laughter at any minute  
  
"This is surprising to you? A lot of women young and old are captivated by my beauty."  
  
"Oh, Eric, shut up!" She threw a pillow at him.  
  
"I say a pillow fights in order." Eric grabbed a pillow from the massive bed he really hated to see the master bedroom.  
  
"That's very mature, Eric. How old are you now? Four? No wonder Tiffany likes you!"  
  
"Come on, Donna are you chicken?"  
  
"I'll show you who's chicken." And within one minute they were having an all-out pillow fight. Luckily, Jackie bought expensive pillows that wouldn't collapse open with feathers flying all over the place. They fell on each other laughing and out of breath as they kissed each other deeply.  
  
"I love you," he said breathlessly.  
  
"I love you, too, Eric. I've missed your smile." Donna replied as they continued to make out on the floor on the soft, supple purple carpet.  
Was It My Fault?  
  
Donna and Jackie both thought it was "so adorable!" that Tiffany wanted to hold hands with Eric on the way to the five star restaurant. Jackie knew Eric had a suit but she was so afraid to see what Donna was going to be wearing and her clothes were too petite for her to borrow. They don't make cute clothes for lumberjacks. Jackie wasn't shallow she just like to go out to fancy places every so often and Steven didn't like to go to five star hotels and restaurants. This was her only chance apart from any business lunches to go to establishments such as this. She occasionally took Tiffany out for an overpriced dessert, but she wanted those to be their special occasions. She couldn't believe it wasn't that long ago that she hated Eric (thankfully with him being in rehab and on that one day in the hospital where he confronted Steven and she stepped out for coffee she wasn't there, they didn't have any words) but now she trusted him with her daughter. The restaurant was decorated just as lavishly as Jackie's apartment-Donna thought it was beautiful, Eric thought it while it was nicely decorated it was still unnecessary, Jackie loved the serenity, and Tiffany liked the colors and the chandeliers. Donna smiled when Tiffany requested that Eric help her with her chair like he did with Donna's.  
  
"Now this is my treat so order anything on the menu." Jackie said  
  
"I want a hamburger, Mommy!"  
  
"You know they don't serve fast food here, Tiffany. They have the shrimp you like."  
  
"Okay!"  
  
'Thirty two fifty for a steak?' Eric thought 'Do you know how much Coke that could buy?' He wasn't overly concerned when he had thoughts like that his Dr and counselors said it was perfectly normal and thinking about it and doing it were two entirely different things.  
  
Jackie's cell phone rang, the caller ID flashed-Hyde, Steven  
  
"I'll take this in the ladies room." Jackie got up, smiling at her daughter.  
  
"It's Steven. He always calls." Tiffany sighed  
  
"Do you like Hyde?" Donna asked, Jackie never mentioned a problem between Tiffany and Hyde and she wouldn't marry anyone who didn't love her daughter.  
  
"Yeah. Steven's cool. But Eric's cuter!"  
  
"Thank you, Tiffany. You're very pretty, too." Eric said, at the risk of thinking like Red everything on the menu was overpriced and even though Jackie was paying he didn't know what he was going to order.  
  
"I don't like dressing up! I want to play outside and get dirty! Mommy hates that." She drank from her water goblet with both hands on the glass.  
  
Jackie came back within five minutes. Hyde only called to check up on things. When Jackie reminded that Donna and Eric were in for a visit he replied only what he could, "Tell Donna I said hi."  
  
"How's Steven, Mommy?"  
  
"He's good, sweetie. Did we all decide on what we wanted to order?" Jackie didn't want to talk about Steven with Eric sitting there and create an uncomfortable situation.  
  
After lunch Jackie dragged Donna to the bathroom she trusted Eric with Tiffany.  
  
"How's Hyde?" Donna asked  
  
"He's okay. He said 'hi'-to you." Jackie opened up her purse and took out her mascara.  
  
"How long can this go on?" Donna sighed frustrated and noticed the attendant, so much for a private conversation.  
  
"Oh.Here Miss Lola," Jackie gave her five dollars which meant 'Go away for a few minutes I want to have a private conversation'.  
  
"Money talks, people walk." Donna said, it must be nice to throw money away like that.  
  
"True. At least when Eric and Hyde saw each other a few weeks ago you told me nothing happened." Jackie said retouching her blush. She believed Steven when he told her nothing happened, but sometimes a woman needs another woman's opinion.  
  
"That's because we were all there and we left very quickly soon after."  
  
"I feel bad for Mrs. Forman she had a great idea on getting them back together."  
  
"Me too. Maybe it's up to us?" Donna asked  
Kitty was trying to have a civil telephone conversation with her daughter Laurie but it wasn't working.  
  
"You had no right to return Eric's check."  
  
"Mother! It does not replace the bracelets that Coke head stole."  
  
"Your brother is not a 'coke head'. He's making great progress- and you are coming to the wedding. I don't want another word out of you. I don't know what date they will decide on, but I don't care you are attending the wedding and supporting your brother!"  
  
Kitty hung up the phone. Not guilty that she hung up on her daughter.  
"Oh my God! What happened?" Jackie and Donna came back to find Tiffany crying in Eric's arms.  
  
"She almost choked on a piece of bread, but she's fine now, right Tiffany bear?" He kissed her head, and Donna felt liked she cheated Eric on something he should have had in his life.  
  
"Eric saved me, Mommy!"  
  
"Thank you, Eric," Jackie took her daughter of Eric's arms, "You just gave your Mother quite a scare." Jackie hugged her tight.  
  
Eric was glad he didn't skip the day in health class where they taught CPR and the Heimlich maneuver to go behind the school with Hyde, Kelso, and Fez to smoke pot. His reason hardly philanthropic he wanted to do "CPR" with Donna in the back of the Vista Cruiser.  
Which if he remembered correctly was meant with a poke in the ribs and being called a "pig" for his urges.  
"Eric, when the dates over Mommy says the girls get kissed!" Tiffany said loudly after they got off the elevator.  
  
Jackie watched Donna's mood seemingly change from upbeat to regret when Eric lightly kissed Tiffany on the cheek.  
  
"Tiffany, why don't you show Eric your room while I talk to Donna?"  
  
"You don't mind do you?" Eric asked, as Tiffany held his hand.  
  
"No, Eric, it's okay." He was great with kids. Donna thought he shouldn't be on a computer doing spreadsheets he should be a kindergarten teacher.  
  
Jackie waited for them to be gone before she spoke.  
  
"What's wrong, Donna? If you are worried about Steven, I can assure you he isn't coming home until later next week."  
  
"Nothing's wrong."  
  
"Nothing's wrong? I'm surprised Eric didn't pick up on it. Want a cup of tea?"  
  
"No, thanks," Donna sat on the sofa. "There's something I have to tell Eric. I'd like to tell you Jackie, but I really should tell Eric first."  
  
"I know what it is." Jackie replied sitting next to Donna almost afraid to touch her hand. "You don't have to talk Donna, just listen okay?"  
30 Minutes Later  
  
Tiffany took it upon herself to show Eric her doll collection. She hated playing with dolls, but loved it when her Mother put a new one in the huge curio cabinet. The ones on the very top shelf she wasn't allowed to touch because they were "for show" still in their boxes. The ones on the bottom she could play with and she liked taking their heads off and twisting their bodies.  
  
There was a soft knock on the door. "Can I come in?" Donna asked quietly  
  
"Yeah!" Tiffany said, "I'm showing Eric my dolls!"  
  
"Come on, Donna, sit on the floor and play Barbie's." Eric replied with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.  
  
"Here you can play with the bride," Tiffany handed Donna the bride doll that had red hair.  
  
"And Eric can play with the groom. Mommy says they live happily ever after."  
  
"Okay, sweetie," Jackie came in the room and got the outfit she was wearing before off the bed, "Let Donna and Eric talk, okay?"  
  
"Okay. BYE!"  
  
"Bye," Eric replied as Jackie closed the door, "She's a real cute kid."  
  
"Eric," Donna nervously stroked the bride dolls hair, "We need to talk."  
  
"What? You don't want to get married now do you?" He whispered  
  
"No, nothing like that Eric, there's something I have to tell you and I don't know how. I didn't tell Jackie, it wouldn't be right to tell her without telling you first but she figured it out by herself." Donna put the dolls back in the cabinet and sat with her back to bed.  
  
"What-Do you still have feelings for Hyde?"  
  
"No. This is hard enough. Seeing you with Tiffany and you are so sweet with her. Made me realize just what I had denied you all these years."  
  
"Donna, it's all right," Eric held her hands, "Some couples are not meant to have children."  
  
"You don't understand. I can't have children."  
  
"Wh-"  
  
"Serves me right for having an affair with Hyde and aborting the baby. Well, I'll spare you what my OB-GYN said and just tell you the abortion wasn't done correctly and as a result, I can't have any children," Donna started to cry as she melted into Eric's shoulder. "It's all my fault. Why I pushed you away and focused on my career, why I invented a scenario that Hyde loved me and would take me away from "boring" you. How I led you on and ran away after it looked like we were going to get back together-Getting my Dad to sell the house. When I hurt you so deeply you turned to f***ing Cocaine---It's all my fault Eric. It's all my fault."  
  
"Ssh," Eric whispered, "It's not your fault that I did drugs. Donna, I love you-you mean everything to me. Don't hurt yourself over the past, we can't change it. We both said and did horrible things. I love you it's all I can say." He wiped away the tears with his hand.  
  
"I love you, too. Do you think Jackie would mind much if we just stayed in here for awhile?" Donna asked quietly.  
  
"Do you want to go out on the balcony?" and in that instant Eric realized the freedom you can get in a place this large. Your own private Oasis to tune out the rest of the world.  
  
"Yeah. I thought you were going to throw a fit over what I told you?"  
  
"Donna, you should know me by now. We're not meant to have children. I can accept that. I hope you can. It's not good to dwell."  
  
"Is that what they taught you in rehab?" Donna tried to joke, it still pulled at her soul and it always would that she couldn't make a family with Eric.  
  
"Ha ha."  
  
"You're too sweet, Eric." She kissed him on the nose.  
  
"You say that now, but in about a few hours or so you'll be begging me to be naughty."  
  
"Hmm, begging you? That's a new one." It was hard to get back into good natured ribbing but she loved him for being so accepting.  
  
The sun was shining over Manhattan as they looked below at all the plastic people without a care* carrying their shopping bags and hailing taxis. It seemed like a surreal existence.  
  
"A picnic table?" Eric questioned  
  
"That's Jackie the decorator." Donna replied, she could picture Jackie and Tiffany out here having milk and cookies before bedtime telling stories over the moonlight. It was hard picturing Hyde being the picture of domestic bliss, Lord knows he deserved it though. She and Jackie were going out tomorrow and to try to find a way to get the two men they each loved very much to become friends again. It was going on for far too long, now they were just being petty about it.  
  
"What are you thinking about?" Eric asked, holding her hand  
  
"Do they live happily ever after?"  
  
Eric didn't know if she was talking about him and Donna or Jackie and the dill hole  
  
"I hope so," Eric brought her hands up to his lips and kissed them. "I hope so." 


	3. Round Four

Chapter 3 Round Four-Forman Vs. Hyde  
  
I Can Feel It Coming In The Air Tonight  
  
Eric looked down from the mini terrace that was attached to his and Donna's guest room. Friday afternoon turned into Friday night as the sapphire blue sky held a full moon. The New York City skyline was one of the most beautiful in the United States-The Empire State Building, World Trade Center, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center to name a few.-the lights making a matrix-esque pattern. The Empire State Building's top was red, white, and blue. The car horns beeping, the people in a constant state of rush, the air seemingly quiet like an empty sports complex or concert hall. Eric felt a calm before the storm. Jackie was tucking in Tiffany in bed (a teenage girl in the other apartment on the floor was going to babysit) and Jackie had tickets for a little experimental (i.e. sanctimonious and boring) play. Despite the noise from down below it still felt quiet. Something had to give, a branch was breaking by the flagpoles on the third floor and Eric heard the snap, a crunch, it wasn't a massive branch but big enough, even a penny dropped from up here could kill the unfortunate person to be standing on ground level. No one was in the way of the branch as it kept falling and falling until it got caught in another part of the tree- being swallowed by its very own 'self'. There was a slight nice breeze up here, not too cold for a jacket, not one of those warm humid breezes that couldn't cool an ant off, but a nice flowing movement in the still night. How did he get here? It's been quite the journey from Point Place-1960 to New York City-2000. Someday that thirteen year old babysitter will be 39 wondering where in the hell did her life go? It was too quiet and Eric almost prayed for a murder below to wake him up out of subconscious thought. You do become the establishment, Eric thought Hyde was fooling himself if he thought he was the 'so cool, so relevant rock and roll producer' even indie was turning corporate Hyde was just as much of a corporate weasel as he was, even if he didn't wear a suit and tie to work. Eric believed the trick was to just stay honest, don't turn phony. They were only people after all. His mind shifted to Donna he couldn't believe he didn't think about her in all that time. He loved her very much and he believed they were soulmates for a very long time. (He couldn't tell anyone when was younger, Red would have sent him to military school and the guys just would have laughed at him everyday to throw him back into his shell.) He did want children, but he accepted what Donna told him, he just assumed she was on the pill and he never wanted to pressure her about children. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was a pulse to the night. It was like being on the Titanic after the iceberg hit and where would a 39 year old white man be in 1912? Not on the lifeboats. They're only for women and children. You will perish with the others and go down with the ship. You had your chance and you blew it, that's it you will die---  
  
"Eric," enter Donna wearing a blue dress with a matching shawl, "What are you thinking about?"  
  
"Nothing,"  
  
"Could have fooled me, you were in deep thought. Are you okay?" Donna asked.  
  
"I'm fine, Donna. You look beautiful in that dress." He was going to kiss her when he heard the sound of huffing and high heels join them on the balcony.  
  
"Oh there you two are! Come on, we're going to be late!" Jackie waved her purse in the air.  
  
"Are you sure you are okay?" Donna whispered to Eric, hoping he wasn't having a late reaction to her news.  
  
"I'm fine." But the truth was he wasn't. He felt off-center. Something was stirring in the air tonight and whatever it was he hoped the volcano wouldn't erupt-that his own self wouldn't swallow him up.  
Catalyst #1  
  
Eric folded and refolded his play program-was Donna really interested in this boring uninspiring so called piece of theatre? It was about a guy who was popular in high school-star athlete, honor society, dated the bubbly perky blonde girl who wanted to stay at home and have his all-star children but in his adult life he became an alcoholic and committed suicide in front of his kids. It got great reviews (or so the back of the program said) for being quote unquote "edgy". This wasn't edgy. This was stupid and trite. The end showed his widow-who wasn't bubbly and perky anymore and smoked and drank in front of her children. She took his trophies, plaques, and other awards off the shelves.  
  
'Sharp and pointy'  
  
'How can you be held accountable for your actions when you were high as the proverbial kite?'  
  
The volcano was sending out smoke signals to the brain.  
  
[come on, eric-you know you want to]  
  
(no-you don't)  
  
[yes, he does, you stay out of it, you good conscience]  
  
(hold donna's hand, and smile, and don't listen to him)  
  
Donna felt Eric holding her hand; she looked over to smile back at him.  
  
"What's wrong?" She whispered.  
  
"Nothing," he whispered back, "This play sucks."  
  
"I know. Jackie seems interested in it."  
  
"Want to wait in the lobby?" Eric needed to get up, feeling restless.  
  
'Not this, again-why?'  
  
"Sure."  
  
[one hit, eric. come on, don't make me pull out the big guns]  
  
(leave him alone)  
  
The lobby was serving free coffee, tea, soda, and water and crustless sandwiches.  
  
"This is so phony, Donna, I can't stand it."  
  
'That's it, I'm going to tune you both out'  
  
"I know." Donna handed Eric a cup of tea as well as one for herself, but those sandwiches looked like they were left out too long.  
  
"Why do you think Jackie would like a play like this?"  
  
"To see how the popular fall," Donna replied, they sat down at one of the small tables by the door. "Eric are you sure you don't want to talk about something?"  
  
"I'm good, Donna." It was partly true, well, it wasn't, but at that moment he convinced himself that it was.  
  
"Do you want to go home early?"  
  
He wanted to blurt out, 'Yeah, there's absolutely no Coke in St. Louis'-he knew exactly where to get it there. He didn't even seek that knowledge it just fell in his lap. There's always a current user in every school and office in the United States of America. Which is why he was what Red would describe as a smart ass in rehab. Sure there were some nice people there, but even the so called alternative approach was nothing but a colossal joke and he even told his doctors and counselors that. Do they even get to the crux why people f***ing use the stuff in the first place? From the glue sniffers. pill poppers, alcoholics, to the heroin shooters it's all about the high to drone out the useless world.  
  
"No. When is this play going to be over?" A part of Eric wanted to leave Jackie there  
  
Donna looked at her watch, "In ten minutes."  
  
"That's nine minutes too long!" Eric finished the tea waiting for this part of the night to be over.  
Jackie took a taxi back to her apartment alone as Eric and Donna wanted to go for a walk after the play. She figured this would be the perfect time to call Steven.  
  
"Hi, Steven, pick up, it's me."  
  
She heard him fumble with the buttons on the other end trying to get a live connection.  
  
"Hi, Jackie." Her voice soothed him.  
  
"Are you---?" Hyde didn't know how to word it without it sounding trivial.  
  
"I'm in a taxi on the way back home. Eric and Donna are going for a walk."  
  
Would it matter if they were in her home or in the taxi with her?  
  
"I can't wait to see you again."  
  
'What about Tiffany?' Jackie thought. She knew he loved her daughter, it was just very difficult for Hyde to show his emotions due to the lack of child rearing skills of Bud and Edna Hyde. Even with the fresh baked out of the oven influence of Mrs. Kitty Forman, Hyde still had a tough time of showing his emotions for fear of the rug being pulled out from under him or being bathed in a bucket of pig's blood while the whole world laughs at him.  
Eric and Donna got hungry and stopped at a diner a few blocks from Jackie's luxury apartment.  
  
"That's all you're going to eat?" asked Eric as Donna picked at her toast, while he cut his pancakes with a fork.  
  
"It's all I'm hungry for."  
  
"Come on," Eric cut off a piece of pancake and rolled it in the syrup, "This is better than the sugar free stuff you buy." and held the fork to her mouth, Donna must have been hungrier than she thought or she felt the need for sugar because she ate it.  
  
"Hmm, that's all I need, the toast is fine."  
  
"Well, I need to gain five pounds." Donna smiled, she knew it was the truth, but it was still hilarious anyway.  
  
"I need to get back to my buffness."  
  
Donna laughed over that one. "Eric, when were you ever buff? Tell me."  
  
"For my height and ideal weight that was buff."  
  
"Oh was it?" Donna got up she had to use the ladies room, she stroked Eric's hair behind the ear and kissed his cheek. That could only mean one thing-that she was in the mood. As if he were a fifteen year old boy back in Point Place hoping "tonight would be the night" with Donna so he wouldn't be ridiculed by his friends in the basement circular structure he finished his pancakes before Donna returned to the table.  
  
"Wow, that was quick," Donna came back as Eric was paying the check.  
  
"I was hungry." He took a quarter and bought a lollipop for Tiffany out of the vending machine.  
  
"And I have a sneaking suspicion it wasn't for the pancakes." Donna replied as they left the diner to hailed a taxi back to Jackie's apartment.  
  
Later  
  
Donna put the key that Jackie left for the doorman to give them in the door. The house was quiet and dimly lit and Eric tried to ignore the sounds of silence.  
  
Donna wrapped her arms around Eric slipping his blazer off his shoulders.  
  
"I love you,"  
  
"I love you, too," He whispered in her ear, "Where's the zipper on this damn thing?" Donna guided Eric's hand to the "hidden" zipper in the back of her dress.  
  
They made a clothes trail stretching from the foyer to the kitchen which wasn't bad considering the substantial size of this apartment.  
  
"On the floor?" Eric asked  
  
"You have a problem with that?" Donna replied as their bodies gently fell to the floor.  
  
"No," he didn't know how he did it, but he was able to pull the pink linen tablecloth off the small kitchen table with a magician's precision.  
  
That's how Jackie found them at four am when she went to get a glass of water. Their bodies pretzeled covered in her favorite tablecloth.  
  
She bent down and tapped Donna on the shoulder "Donna! Do you think you and Eric can somehow find your way back to the guestroom before Tiffany wakes up?"  
  
"W-what," Then she remembered where she was, "Oh. Sure."  
  
"And don't forget to take your clothes with you." Jackie didn't mean to sound like she was going to snap. She missed making love with Steven.  
  
" Yeah. I don't know how we wound up here." Donna replied  
  
"The heat of the moment was that intense?" Jackie asked twisting the cap off her Evian.  
  
"Yeah. It's hard to tell by looking at him, " Donna glanced at Eric sleeping soundly, "But that skinny boy can pack a quite a punch."  
  
Jackie stifled a laugh as she went back to her bedroom before her daughter came in the kitchen and found them like this.  
Catalyst #2 (Thy name is Steven)  
  
7:45 am  
  
Eric woke up to the springs in the bed going up and down and Donna wasn't even in the room.  
  
"ERIC! Wake up!" Tiffany took it upon herself to jump on the bed  
  
"Tiffany there you are! Sorry about that, Eric." Donna opened the guest bathroom door and came out in her robe.  
  
"It's okay," he looked down to make sure he was dressed he didn't remember how he got back into the guest room-but he had his St. Louis Rams sweatshirt and gray sweatpants on and he didn't remember how he did that either. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep after an exceptional lovemaking session with his fiancée on the kitchen floor. "Morning, Tiffany."  
  
"Donna! You aren't going to wear that blouse are you?"  
  
"What's wrong with it?"  
  
"Um-are you guys going somewhere?" Eric asked  
  
"Yeah! You have to babysit me Eric!"  
  
"I forgot to tell you last night. Remember Gracie Burns from high school, Eric? Well, Jackie kind of suckered me into going to her baby shower."  
  
"I can have ice cream for dinner!" Tiffany put in  
  
"No, you are going to have what's on the list, I put on the refrigerator. It's too casual."  
  
"It's a baby shower, Jackie. Not dinner at the White House."  
  
"I hope you don't mind babysitting Tiffany." Jackie said to Eric as Donna grabbed another blouse that whether not met Jackie's approval she was going to wear it anyway.  
  
"It's no problem," Eric would rather do that, than go to a baby shower. "Did you eat breakfast?" Eric asked Tiffany who was still jumping on the bed.  
  
"No. I want Cheerios! Will you make me some?" She asked Eric  
  
"Sure." He knew where he could take her after breakfast.  
  
Today seemed like a good day, but Eric knew better.  
  
1:00 pm  
  
After Eric and Tiffany had their Cheerios with blueberries they headed out to do some shopping and then stop for lunch so she could finally have her giggle meal which consisted of a small hamburger, small fries, small soda, and a little plastic non US made toy. She wanted the boys toy which was a small car a yellow VW Beetle, the girls was a purple barrette with pink ribbon braided into the barrette.. The volcano was not active today. Eric was happy.  
  
"How was your day so far?" he asked the little girl.  
  
"Great, Eric! You're fun."  
  
"Thanks," he smiled as he drank his Coca~Cola, "You're fun, too."  
6:00 pm  
  
"Mommy never lets me have pizza! Steven does, but Mommy says it's not good for me."  
  
"Well, Eric says pizza is a perfectly fine dinner." Screw Jackie's list.  
  
"I take a bath after. You have to put the water on, Mommy won't let me."  
  
It was easier interacting with children than it was adults. Eric wished he could be five years old again. Children were innocence intact, unless you had neglectful parents who made a five year old turn forty.  
  
"Okay. And guess what I got you for dessert?"  
  
"Ice cream?" She had her lollipop earlier when they walking down the streets of Manhattan hand-in-hand.  
  
"Fudgesicles."  
  
"I like those. Mommy doesn't buy them either. She says the sugar will rot my teeth."  
  
"Baby teeth fall out anyway." Eric replied in childlike wisdom.  
6:45pm  
  
"Yeah, he is! Bye Mommy!" Tiffany hung up the phone. Jackie was calling to check in and make sure Eric was doing all right.  
  
She had called from her cell phone while Donna talked to Eric on hers.  
  
"How's the babysitting going?"  
  
"Great. She's a great kid."  
  
"That's because she's smitten with you."  
  
"And who better, Donna? What time are you two coming back?"  
  
"Probably around nine. The traffic is going to be murder and this is the most over the top baby shower I've ever seen in my life."  
  
"Okay. I'll see you then. Love you."  
  
"Love you, Eric." Donna beamed into the phone.  
7:00 pm  
  
Eric put out the soda and popcorn on the coffee table as he took out one of the video tapes. He bought Tiffany the complete Star Wars trilogy video set.  
  
"You are going to love Star Wars. This is the best movie ever made!"  
  
"Put it on, Eric."  
  
The day was going better than Eric thought it was going to. Not concerning Tiffany she was an adorable, sweet little girl. He felt great, nothing was bothering him, and there were no signs that the volcano was going to bubble let alone erupt.  
  
Somewhere during The Empire Strikes Back tape both Eric and Tiffany fell asleep on the couch. Eric dreaming of rescuing Princess Leia (Donna) and Tiffany dreaming that Darth Vader was beating up Luke Skywalker.  
  
10:00 pm  
  
Donna and Jackie thought it was so charming that Eric and Tiffany fell asleep watching Star Wars that they had to take a few pictures of them. They were upstairs watching a so-called 'Chick Flick' in Jackie's room when Tiffany came in crying.  
  
"MOMMY!"  
  
"What is it, Tiffany? Do you have a stomach ache?" She saw all the junk food they had eaten.  
  
"Steven came home----"  
  
"Oh------" 'f***' Donna said  
  
"And he started beating up on Eric!"  
  
Donna and Jackie who was carrying Tiffany ran down the living room.  
  
"You son of a bitch! How dare you scare her like that!" Eric punched him in the stomach.  
  
"She's not your kid, Forman. I don't want my daughter exposed to you!"  
  
"She's not your daughter!"  
  
"Enough!" Donna got between them. "Hyde-you are a f***ing ass**** you know that-Eric would never harm Tiffany."  
  
Tiffany started crying again, Jackie kissed her on the cheek and sat her on the sofa.  
  
"I want you out of my house, Steven! I don't care where you are going to sleep tonight, but it isn't going to be here!"  
  
"I need some air," Eric said not really looking anyone in the eye except for the frightened little girl on the sofa, He kneeled down to get on her level "I'm sorry, Tiffany."  
  
The smoke was coming out of the volcano. The volcano was bubbling.  
  
"Eric, you need a band-aid." Tiffany said.  
  
"I'll be fine, sweetie." He kissed her on the cheek-but he needed to get out of here.  
  
"Eric, where are you going?" Donna ran after him ignoring Jackie and Hyde's argument going on around them.  
  
"I need some air."  
  
He went to the guest room to throw his sneakers on.  
  
"Eric-"  
  
He breezed passed Donna as he threw his jacket on and decided to run down the stairs instead of taking the elevators.  
  
"I didn't mean to frighten, Tiffany," Hyde felt terrible about that. "I-"  
  
"Steven if you are not out of this apartment in five minutes, I'm calling security to come up and escort you out!" Jackie's eyes burned with seriousness and disappointment as she held onto her crying daughter. "You can sleep with Mommy tonight, okay, peaches."  
  
"What the f***? No. I don't want to know." Donna snapped at him denying her inner soul of not knowing where Eric was going and what he was doing.  
10:30 pm  
  
"All your dreams are made when you are chained to the mirror and the razorblade" /Morning Glory by Oasis/Noel Gallagher  
  
Eric did two lines of coke in the restroom of nightclub Elaine's he put his head back against the bathroom door. Feeling a mixture of relief, ecstasy, guilt, shame, and self-disappointment.  
  
"Come on, man, your time is up." Said another guy banging on the door wanting to do his hit.  
  
Eric took his goody bag and put it in the inside zippered pocket of his jacket.  
  
Eric didn't say a word as he opened the door and headed outside for the long and slow walk back to Jackie's apartment.  
  
[welcome back, eric] 


	4. Relapses And Regrets

Chapter 4 Relapses And Regrets  
  
When Tiffany fell asleep Jackie kissed her head and tucked her in the warm blankets. Her eyes were all red and dry from the crying. There was absolutely no reason for Steven to beat up on a sleeping Eric and scare HER daughter. She put on her silk robe and saw the light on in the guest room, still knocking instead of barging right in like she would have done if she were still sixteen.  
  
"Come in, Jackie." Donna's eyes were red and dry, too. Eric was still not back yet. She didn't want to admit that he was-------  
  
Jackie sat on foot of the bed.  
  
"I'm sorry, Donna. Steven was way out of line. I never saw him that angry before."  
  
"I should have followed, Eric. Why didn't I follow Eric?" Donna got up, she fell asleep or had tried to in her clothes.  
  
"Are you worried he might have-um, started up again?"  
  
"Yes-and I swear if something happens to him, I'll kill Hyde. I'm sorry for wording it that way, Jackie. But-"  
  
"It's all right. I want you to promise me one thing?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"If Eric did reach for drugs don't abandon him. He's a good man."  
  
"I'm not going to abandon him," Donna sighed, "I love him too much to do that."  
  
Besides this episode wasn't entirely his fault she rationed before she felt Jackie's arms go around her.  
  
"I need a hug." She whispered  
  
"So do I. We'll get through this." Donna replied trying to make them both feel better.  
Even though he could afford better lodging Hyde chose to stay at a cheap motel on the other side of the tracks. It matched his mood. He didn't mean to lose his cool with Forman. He came home early because the band he was working with were going through some internal troubles and he thought all the way home, he could deal with his former best friend. He would do it for Jackie-the woman he's loved for years. He would be good and Jackie would be proud of him. It wasn't meant to be he supposed when he saw that Forman and Tiffany fell asleep on the couch watching Star Wars coupling with the fact that Jackie would mention that Eric and Tiffany were getting along splendidly. He was going to be that girl's stepfather in a couple of months and how could Tiffany accept him as that when she was having a blast with Forman? The jealousy and anger got to him and he starting pounding him while he was sleeping. He thought of Mrs. Forman and felt awful. He thought of Tiffany waking up to it and being frightened that he wanted to open up the window and jump out of it. He tried phoning Jackie but she took every single phone off the hook. He was sorry. He finished another beer and crushed the can throwing it across the room landing in a pile by the door with the other cans. He felt like shit. He didn't know what he was going to do if Jackie didn't take him back.  
Donna fell asleep again and around two am she felt Eric kissing her neck.  
  
'Shit' Eric noticed a small smear of blood on her neck and licked his finger with saliva to wipe it away.  
  
"I'm back from my walk." 'Lying bastard'  
  
It wouldn't take that long to walk back to here on a normal day but Eric had sat on a park bench for the longest time trying to grapple with what he had done. Even though Hyde was the biggest f***ing jerk on the planet-he just had to run right to back to the Cocaine monster. There was no excusing or justifying to be done regarding that.  
  
Donna put her arms around him, he was relatively safe, he was back in bed with her, and the problem would still be there when they woke up.  
  
"I love you, Eric." She kissed him on the lips.  
  
"I don't deserve you, Donna." He yawned as he sank into the covers. "But I do love you." It was himself that he hated.  
  
(note-I have to do one or two more angst bits to get out of this arc, but they don't involve Hyde and Eric.)  
  
11:00 am  
  
As soon as Jackie returned from dropping Tiffany off at her playgroup she started to cry again. She loved Steven with all of her heart. If it was only Eric she don't think she'd have freaked out so much, but the fact that their fight happened with her daughter present made her very angry. The way that Hyde attacked Eric in his sleep made her uncomfortable. She walked quietly to the kitchen and hoped Donna wasn't in there because she needed to be alone. She poured herself a cup of tea and thought about the current state of things-She kicked Hyde out of the apartment and god only knows where he went because she took all the phones off the hook and told the doorman to not let him up here. He could have gone back to his apartment in Wisconsin. She wanted to call his cell and hear his voice, the quiet sensitive voice he used only for her-She looked at the engagement ring on her finger. Not knowing whether to take it off or keep it on. They were going to work through this right? He was great with Tiffany before this, maybe not as natural with children as Eric, but Eric despite the hardness of Red still had a great childhood when you compared it to Hyde's traumatic one. Jackie took a deep breath and got up to use the telephone. She knew she'd get his voice mail.  
  
"Steven, it's me. I knew I'd get your voice mail. Call me-okay?"  
  
Her heart skipped a beat when Donna walked in.  
  
"Hi-are you hungry for lunch?" Jackie wanted to remain the gracious host.  
  
"No-Did you talk to Hyde?"  
  
"He didn't pick up, so I had to leave a message. How's Eric?"  
  
"Still sleeping. I've had time to think about what happened Jackie and I hope you don't let what happened ruin your relationship."  
  
"What?" Jackie stirred her tea, "I thought you of all people would say to dump him for what happened."  
  
"Maybe, I will have a cup of tea," Donna got up to pour it herself, "I learned a great deal when I left Eric hanging in rehab. It's easy to run away when it's not perfect, when you get hurt. It doesn't excuse Hyde for beating Eric up while he was sleeping-but I think he was jealous of how natural it was for Tiffany and Eric to get along. After all-Jackie you have to keep in mind Hyde's going to be your daughters stepfather. He probably has all these feelings inside he doesn't know what to do with. I don't know if he and Eric will ever sort things out. And at this point it's really between them."  
  
Like Kitty, Donna and Jackie abandoned their plans to get involved in getting them back together. For Hyde and Eric to get their friendship back they had to both want it. And they were both so f***ing stubborn.  
  
"He's great with Tiffany."  
  
"Did you ever tell him that? In those words?"  
  
"I didn't think I had to. I always thought my actions, my trust was enough." Jackie replied. For the talkative Jackie she felt that of all the things to not say, this was the worst. She never thought Steven needed to hear her praise him on getting along with her daughter. She assumed he just knew. That it was one of those things you didn't have to say.  
  
"Hyde needs to hear that. He's probably very nervous regarding being someone's father. After all your ex-husband ignores Tiffany. He probably feels a great deal of weight on his shoulders. It's the biggest responsibility he'll ever have."  
  
Jackie held Donna's hand, "Thanks. I plan to tell him all this when I can reach him. What happens with you and Eric?"  
  
If one thing made Jackie feel better is that both couples were going through turmoil. She wasn't facing uncertainty alone.  
  
"We're still getting married," Donna pulled something out of her pants pocket, "Despite this."  
  
Donna put the bag of Coke on the table. She didn't mean to go through his pockets. It just sort of happened when she was getting dressed. She saw his jacket thrown across a chair and something told her to search the pockets.  
  
"Donna! I don't want Tiffany to see that stuff when she comes home! Flush it."  
  
"I'm not going to flush it. Eric is. I'm going to make sure of that." She put it back in her pocket.  
  
"He was doing so well. You know it's really not Steven's fault that Eric ran to drugs."  
  
Donna sighed. "I know. I needed somebody to blame."  
  
"The only thing he did wrong was the fight." Jackie needed a piece of cake. Her cook Simone made the best desserts.  
  
"I know, Jackie," Donna replied not wanting to lose her cool, "You know it is hard to look at Eric and---it's just easier to blame others for his drug use. I blamed myself constantly. I still do sometimes. Both Eric and Hyde are responsible for their own actions."  
  
"I hope they can make up. They were best friends as close as guy friends can be without the sappy emotions we women insist our friendships be filled with."  
  
"Are you kidding? When everyone left the basement Eric was always trying to get Hyde to open up." She did love him for having a sensitive side.  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"Because he told me." Donna got up, she wanted to check to see if Eric was awake yet.  
  
"Donna, I hope we can have our double wedding." Jackie hoped her and Steven were going to get married. What if they messed things up?  
  
"I'd like that. Mrs. Forman would be over the moon." Donna heard a noise coming from the side room.  
  
"It's the fax machine."  
  
Donna took her tea and went back to the guest room. Jackie put her cup in  
  
the sink and went to check on her fax. She ripped the paper and sat in her office chair to read it.  
  
Dear Jackie,  
  
It's over. I'll send for my things later. I'll never stop loving you.  
  
Steven  
  
"F***." Jackie started to cry again. Then she realized the fax for what it was. Another brick in the great wall of Steven Hyde.  
  
"No, Steven, it's not over." Jackie ripped the paper up and threw it in the wastebasket determined now more than ever to knock his self imposed bricks down.  
  
Donna walked in the room to find Eric lying in bed with his eyes open.  
  
"Good morning, or I should say good afternoon, Eric." She kissed him on the cheek.  
  
"My head hurts." He groaned.  
  
"Good. When you get up you have to do me a favor." Donna walked around to get back to her side of the bed.  
  
"Which is?"  
  
"You'll see." She stroked his hair as she picked a magazine off the end table.  
  
Eric closed his eyes he didn't want to wake up today.  
  
"No," Donna shook his shoulder, "You are not going back to sleep."  
  
"All right," Eric stretched and forced himself to sit up right, "Happy now?"  
  
He looked a wreck and Donna knew what he would look like-she saw it with her own eyes before-what he would have looked like if he did the whole bag.  
  
"As a matter of fact I am." She held his hand.  
  
"I need a shower, but I'm too tired to move. So, Donna, what's this favor you want me to do?"  
  
"You'll see. You want some tea or coffee?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Do you want to get high?"  
  
Eric looked at Donna like he couldn't believe she would ask the question.  
  
"Do I want to? No. Do I need to? Yeah."  
  
Eric got out of bed and if Donna had her hunches right she knew he was going to go to his jacket pocket. This was a new one to do these things right in front of her. Did Eric honestly think she was going to let him do it?  
  
"All right, Donna-what did you do with it?"  
  
Donna got up and stood in the doorway of the guest bathroom.  
  
"I have it. It's in my pocket and you are going to dispose of it."  
  
Eric looked at her with I-can't-believe-you-are-doing-this-to-me eyes  
  
"And if we have to stay here all day and all night, we are not going anywhere until you flush it." She took the bag out of her pocket and went inside the bathroom.  
Hyde sat on the steps of a quaint country cottage in rural Pennsylvania. He wiped the dust from the knees of his faded jeans. He had a knack for ruining his life. Why did he have to pounce on Forman while he was sleeping? He wasn't high or even drunk when he did that. Did he just want to sabotage a perfectly great thing with Jackie? He couldn't even call Mrs. Forman to see how her and Red were doing because he didn't know if they knew about what happened in New York. He loved Tiffany and he didn't mean to scare her. Jackie was like the Mother bird who would bite your finger off if you went inside the nest and bothered the little bird. He thought of going into the barn to crash into the hay pile and do a joint but that made him think of the little drug addict that couldn't. The place was barely furnished all that was there was a bed and a portrait for above the fireplace still wrapped in bubble wrap and brown paper. This was to be a gift for Jackie after the wedding when he surprised her with this cottage. That was close enough to New York because he respected that Jackie did not want to sell her City apartment as well as change locations for the sake of her career. He did want to call her and hear her beautiful voice but he couldn't. He did feel like his parents for running away when it got tough. And this wasn't the first time. They should have been married after high school. He was nine years to being fifty f***ing years old! Hyde felt he didn't accomplish anything much at all. He had his producing career and his love of real rock and roll but what good was it when there wasn't Jackie by his side? While he was in the hospital in a coma thanks to the scrawny high idiot using a trophy as a knife it was Jackie who made the phone calls on his behalf. Today was the day he handed in his resignation at the label by modern means of fax. He financially didn't need to work, which made him happy to think back at the poor sad orphan boy who had to work at the Photohut. His plan was to take a sabbatical for a few months and think of what he wanted to do with his life. He supposed he could take his mind off things and get the furniture put in and sublet his apartment in Wisconsin. He couldn't go to Kitty or Red because he didn't know what anyone told him and he didn't want to take that risk, he didn't have a best friend because he (Eric) was a loser, and he didn't have a beautiful woman by his side who had a child who needed a positive Father figure. He didn't have parents. Well he had parents he just didn't know where they were since he last heard about their whereabouts ten years ago in a trailer park in the mid west. He was what he hated most of all-alone. He got up and took a deep breath in the country air. What he wouldn't give for one last touch of Jackie.  
Eric sat on the bathtub determined to change the subject. He wanted to tell Donna that he was disappointed in himself. That no one else could be held responsible for him going out and getting high. It still remained that if she suddenly were to disappear in a vat of smoke he'd have done the Coke. He tried to resist his demons before Hyde even came back to New York, he couldn't pin it on him. It was like suicide a girl about sixteen in the first support group told him and the rest of them-it ultimately comes down to yourself. No one is making you reach for the gun or the bottle of little green pills. Drug use was the same. You could have a massive verbal or physical fight with Your spouse, child, friend, whomever and if you go out and shoot, snort, or pop it eventually comes down to yourself. Eric hated talking to therapists and doctors but he didn't mind the support groups. The sixteen year old girl who sat next to him on his right was brought up in one of those perfect suburban households pushed to be a tennis star by her domineering parents and she developed a penchant for Crack. He felt so bad for her, she really had her whole life ahead and many more chances of relapses. He couldn't find any words to say to Donna when he wanted to tell her so much. He had her back again and he didn't want to lose her. The only thing that gave him some relief was that his drug use started AFTER the divorce.  
  
That wasn't why their marriage broke up. He fretfully picked up a bottle of conditioner rather than look her in the eye. There was something else he didn't have words for-one of the darkest days of Eric Forman's life but he chose to block it out. He threw the bottle in the bathtub and stood up. Grateful that Donna gave him the silence. He put his hands on her shoulders.  
  
"I love you and although I can't promise it won't happen again," They were told in rehab to never 'promise it won't happen again' which Donna knew from the Highpoint literature. "I can only promise you it won't happen today."  
  
He kissed her on the lips feeling the spark that he never wanted to lose sight of.  
  
"I love you, too, Eric." She handed him the bag realizing how difficult this was for him.  
  
Eric took whole bag and threw it in the toilet. Knowing that there would be some people who would have gone in the water for it. There was a time when it would've been him. Eric flushed it away.  
  
"I'm very proud of you," Donna kissed him on the cheek and held his hand, "Now let's go eat lunch I'm starving."  
  
"Your scumbag fiancée needs a shower, remember?"  
  
"Oh, right. Do you fancy company then?"  
  
He smiled a faint smile. The fact that she still loved him and wanted to still marry him made him more determined than ever that this "Day One" would be the last.  
Jackie sighed bored out of her head, as she wouldn't be picking up Tiffany until later and Donna and Eric were taking a shower together as she could hear the water running. She was about to go out and get some air, go to the newsstands to pick up a magazine when the phone rang. 'Please let it be Steven.' she thought.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
It was one of her fake friends from the department store. She was about the same age as Jackie but the only thing they had in common was a superficial knowledge about cosmetics.  
  
"Hi, Jackie! Why didn't you tell me we were going to be neighbors?"  
  
'Huh?' "Well, Phyllis---"  
  
"Roger came back from antiquing without me-and the cottage is adorable, Jackie."  
  
'Cottage? What cottage?' "Yes, it is." She played along. She had nothing else better to do.  
  
"And you've got a stable for horses. I bet Steven is going to buy you one.  
  
Roger didn't get talk to Steven but he saw him get the mail out of the box and waved from the car."  
  
What? Steven had a secret cottage? Since when?  
  
"You know, Phyllis. I'm bad with directions and I lost the ones Steven left for me-do you think you could be a dear and get them for me? You know I get lost every time I drive." "No problem. I'll have Roger fax them to you. I'm glad you guys chose Pennsylvania---"  
  
'Pennsylvania?'  
  
"Connecticut is too snobby and upper crust-not to mention your uptight former in-laws live there."  
  
"Thanks for calling, Phyllis, but I have to check on Tiffany." She lied.  
  
"Give her my love. I'll talk to you later. Bye."  
  
Jackie hung up the phone and tried to put together what Phyllis just told her. Steven bought a cottage in Pennsylvania? She went to her office area and made sure her fax machine was still on as she sprinted to her room to get a suitcase out of her walk in closet. 


	5. Restitution

Chapter 5 Restitution  
  
Author's note-I hope everyone likes the story so far. I have strived for a semblance of realism in everything I have written-but realized sometimes too much of angst and strife thrown into our stories can make it seem just as "unreal" as if it were too happy and perfect. There has to be a balance of both the positive and negative aspects involved to keep it real. Keep reading, reviewing, and writing. Thank you!!~Carol  
The Gift  
  
Jackie didn't want to tell Donna where she was going she didn't want to verbally admit it to even herself afraid that the slightest mention would jinx the whole thing. When she heard Donna and Eric finally get out of the bathroom she knocked on the door and said,  
  
"Donna, I need to talk to you so hurry up and get dressed. I'll be in my room."  
  
'Is it about me?' Eric thought  
  
"Wonder what she wants?" Donna asked Eric as she put on her jeans which would have stuck to her body if it weren't for the fact she wore them today.  
  
"Prob-"  
  
Jackie knocking on the door again interrupted Eric.  
  
"Donna, how long does it take you to get dressed?"  
  
"All right, Jackie," Donna threw on her shirt. "I'm coming."  
  
"I thought you all ready did that?" Eric replied quietly buttoning up his shirt.  
  
Donna looked over and smiled, "Eric! You're so bad." She kissed him on the lips before seeing what Jackie wanted.  
"I'm worried about the kids," Kitty told Red over a late lunch  
  
"They haven't called in a few days."  
  
'Thank god' Red thought as he tried to eat his sandwich in peace.  
  
"They're fine, Kitty."  
  
Kitty didn't tell Red but she had a dream about Eric and Donna fighting. She normally wasn't one to believe her dreams but it just seemed so real. She couldn't make out what they were arguing over but it was intense. She wanted to make sure their wedding was still on. She was also worried about Steven she hasn't heard from him in awhile either.  
  
"How do you know, Red? Are you psychic?"  
  
'Oh, crap' "Oh, crap."  
"Okay, Jackie what is so important?" Donna came into her room to find Jackie changing of all things to a smaller suitcase.  
  
"Maybe, I should ask you, where are you going?"  
  
"That's not important for you to know right now, but I need you and Eric to do me a favor."  
  
"I was going to ask you if we could stay an extra day?" Calling Eric's workplace was extremely uncomfortable and she hoped his supervisor bought the excuse she made up. 'The airline messed up on our tickets' Indeed.  
  
"You can stay as long as you want, Donna. But if you do have to leave can you take Tiffany with you to St. Louis for a few days?"  
  
"What? Why? Where are you going?"  
  
"I'd rather not say, but I won't be gone long. Please? I'd rather she stay with you guys than the neighbors."  
  
Donna didn't mind watching Tiffany and she knew Eric wouldn't mind seeing as how the two children (one of them 39) got along well with each other. She wouldn't press Jackie on where she was going. She did wonder if it had anything to do with Hyde?  
  
"I suppose it's okay."  
  
"Thanks, Donna! You're the best." Jackie hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.  
Hyde wrapped the last stack of one hundred dollar bills with a thick elastic band and put it in the wall safe of the master bedroom and covered the safe with his Ferrari picture. He hated being alone. How in the hell did this happen? Not too long ago he was at least producing records. Maybe he shouldn't have left London? No-he and Jackie got back together. And Forman turned into a little drug-addled prick. Who'd have thought that? If he was married to Donna he wouldn't have acted like a silly little boy who had to get his way. That's exactly what that relationship was about and the fact that Donna took him back so quickly was probably due to the immense guilt she had over the dill hole keeping a ten bob up his nose*. He wasn't thinking of Donna in the romantic sense, his heart belonged to Jackie. Realizing there was a time when he was younger and the thought of loving Jackie would have been a death sentence in Hell. He felt as he grabbed a music magazine off his bed that Donna could do a lot better than Eric Forman. This was supposed to be a nice country get-away for himself and Jackie and now he was bored beyond belief. It was for the best though. He thought he'd be a lousy stepfather to Tiffany. Who needed the agro of putting up with Donna visiting Jackie with the Coke head in tow? Hyde put his magazine down and opened the drawer of his end table-he knew what he could do.  
  
It wasn't the same 360 when you are alone.  
When Donna told Eric about the favor Jackie had asked of them he left her in a state of confusion as he walked to Jackie's room and knocked on her door.  
  
"Come in, Donna."  
  
"It's Eric." He opened the door.  
  
"Did Donna---?"  
  
"Yeah. It's nothing like that, Jackie. I don't mind babysitting for you. Tiffany's a nice girl. But-after what I did---you still trust me with your daughter?"  
  
"Eric, you made a mistake. It happens. I wouldn't have asked Donna and yourself if I didn't trust the both of you."  
  
"Thanks." He gave her a small hug and laughed.  
  
"What's so funny?"  
  
"That we've come to a point where we are actually friends, I used to think you were snobby and shallow."  
  
Jackie laughed. "And I thought you were a geek. I never would have hung out in your basement if it wasn't for the fact Michael groan hung out there."  
  
"I would've kicked you out if Kelso wasn't there."  
  
"What are you guys talking about?" Donna came in  
  
"You have a keeper here, Donna."  
  
"Who'd have thought Jackie Burkhart would be my friend and Steven Hyde my enemy?" Eric laughed again which caused Jackie to laugh over the absurdity over it all.  
  
"Okay, I missed something." But it was good to see Eric laughing.  
  
Eric went over to Donna and kissed her. "Listen to Jackie, I'm a keeper!"  
  
"Yeah both of you need the rubber room!" Donna replied, "Eric, if you tickle me you are going to be sorry!"  
  
"And this is punishment? Come on, Jackie let's get her! She can't fight the both of us off!"  
  
For a brief moment it felt like the old times in the basement.  
2 hours later  
  
"We didn't buy any souvenirs." Eric said to Donna, as they were packing their suitcases to return to St. Louis so they wouldn't have to do it in the morning.  
  
"You mean you didn't buy the Darth Vader wearing an I-Love-New-York shirt key chain from the airport shop?"  
  
"You made that up! But they should make those." Eric replied doe-eyed.  
  
"Eric get a life!" Donna threw a pillow at him.  
  
"Knock-knock," Jackie breezed in with Tiffany behind her. "I already packed Tiffany's suitcase so you won't be rushed."  
  
"Where are you going, Mommy?" she asked again  
  
"On a little trip, sweetie, but I promise I'll be home soon," 'Hopefully, with Steven', "I'm sure you'll have lots of fun staying with Donna and Eric. I have to leave now so give Mommy a big hug and kiss."  
  
"I love you, Mommy."  
  
"Love you, too, sweetie."  
  
Within the snap of a finger Jackie with miraculously only one suitcase was out of the apartment and in a taxi.  
  
Donna looked at the clock.  
  
"Are you hungry, dear?"  
  
"Actually, I'm starving-----"  
  
"Not you, Eric. Tiffany, what time do you eat supper?"  
  
"When the little hand is on the six."  
  
"Let's see what your Mom has in the kitchen?"  
  
"Can I stay with Eric?"  
  
"Sure." Donna wished she had the rapport with children.  
  
Eric finished packing except for the clothes he was going to wear tomorrow.  
  
"Are you not sick anymore?"  
  
'Huh'? Thought Eric  
  
"Mommy said you were sick and I had to be quiet this morning."  
  
'Oh, she means you were passed out from your Coke binge'  
  
He tried to smile to reassure her, "I'm better."  
  
Donna came back in the guest room, "There's nothing. Why don't we go out to the Hard Rock?"  
  
"That's a good idea, Donna." Eric wondered how come there wasn't a Star Wars themed restaurant? He'd buy stock in it!  
  
"What's the Hard Rock?" asked Tiffany  
  
"A awesome rock and roll themed restaurant and you don't have to wear a dress and Mary Jane's! But you should wash up before we go."  
  
"Okay!"  
  
"Where do you think Jackie is going?" asked Eric in a whisper  
  
"I don't know, but wherever she is going she was in a mighty hurry to get there."  
It was only a few hours drive from the car rental station at JFK to the rural Pennsylvania countryside but Jackie got lost twice and needed to stop in a rest area to make a cell phone call to see how Tiffany was doing. Eric and Donna took her the Hard Rock Café. She also needed to eat a little something and settled on a truck stop which was against her character and she quickly downed her cherry pie and coffee and quickly left, as the gazing eyes of the truckers made her feel very uncomfortable. She wasn't as big as Donna, but she knew she could defend herself if she had to. Steven taught her how. She saw a mailbox it said Hyde and a piece of duct tape over the rest. She got out of her car and peeled back the tape--& Jackie.  
  
She felt a lump grow in her throat but got back in the car and headed up to the cottage.  
  
"Aww". She said aloud, it was a quaint little country cottage that she always thought would be perfect to make babies in. Not like the hotel suite in Paris where Tiffany was conceived. All the lights were off and she thought what if Steven wasn't home? But then she saw his car parked along side the house. Jackie parked as soon as she got to the unpaved driveway and turned off the car. She hoped she was doing the right thing. She loved Steven in much the same way Eric loved Donna. She may not have developed a drug habit but if she didn't have a daughter to raise she might have become a societal alcoholic and designer pill popper. She loved him very much but it didn't mean he was going to recipicate. Jackie got out of the car and took her suitcase out of the trunk. She walked to the front door and put her hand on the knob-it was open. The year 2000 and the door was open. She took a deep breath and opened the door as quietly as she could.  
  
There were two lit long white tapered candles on the wooden fireplace mantel. She was afraid to make a move but silently as possible got ready for her gift to Steven.  
"Eric, get the door." Donna grumbled shoving him thinking there was a knock on the front door.  
  
"W-what?"  
  
Eric got out of bed almost bumping into the wall. It was Tiffany holding the unicorn Jackie gave her.  
  
"I had a bad dream, Eric!"  
  
He picked her up, "You want to sleep with us?"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
"What was your dream about?"  
  
"Some monster was chasing me!"  
  
'Probably, Hyde' Eric thought  
  
"Is everything okay?" Donna tried to sit up.  
  
"Yeah. Tiffany just had a bad dream."  
  
"May I have a glass of milk?"  
  
'Good luck getting it off Donna at eleven o'clock at night!' Eric thought.  
  
"Of course, sweetie."  
  
"Thank you." She replied like Jackie taught her.  
  
"You're in with Big Red." Eric replied good-naturedly.  
  
"You're silly, Eric." Tiffany said back. Even though she liked Eric and Donna she still wanted to be back in her New York City apartment with her Mother.  
  
Jackie checked her hair in her compact mirror. Another reason she was so late getting here, but she wanted to get her hair put up in a French braid and decorated with babies' breath. She had the idea when she crossed the Pennsylvania state line and scrambled to find a decent hairdresser but had to go to one of those cookie cutter places that Donna went to. They did an okay job she supposed, but she wanted this moment to be perfect. She slipped into a knee length ivory chemise with thin straps that criss crossed in the back. This was the most brazen thing she had ever done. She took out her a bottle of perfume that Steven had bought for one of her Christmas presents when they had started dating. Their was only a little bit left and she only wore it on special occasions. She slid the crystal stopper down the nape of her neck and her pulse points. Knowing this was either the beginning (again) or the very end of the Jackie and Hyde story. Jackie didn't know where the master bedroom was so she just let herself go down a natural path and the familiar scent of what the Forman basement used the smell like. She hated him still doing that. She hadn't touched a joint in decades, the only vice she had was a little problem with diet pills seven years ago.  
  
She got to the end of the hall and put her hand on this doorknob feeling like a little Alice in Wonderland. Her heart ached a million little pieces seeing Steven sleeping. The only light coming from two large candles. The ones she picked out for him many moons ago. There were beer bottles on the end tables and the ashtrays filled the air with the scent of waning weed. She walked as if she were in slow motion and slid in the bed making sure when he opened his eyes she would be over him. She put her lips to his and kissed him. Awake the Zen prince.  
  
Hyde's eyes blinked open. He had to be dreaming but it certainly felt like it was real. He was going to say something but Jackie put a finger to his lips. He put his hands on her shoulders praying to God (and he never did much of that in his life) that this was not a dream. Their bodies went into a natural, beautiful rhythmic swirl. He had his Tiny Dancer back. When it  
  
was all over he let himself silently cry in her arms that night.  
Next day:  
  
Eric was making breakfast for Tiffany as Donna slept in for a few minutes before he had to leave for work. He had the coffee pot on hoping the aroma would wake her up. Although the coffee did absolutely nothing to him as it was decaffeinated. Ever since graduating college Donna got swept up in the '80s healthy eating revolution. Even at the Hard Rock Café she had a turkey burger took it off the bun and only ate that the lettuce and tomato and drank a bottled water.  
  
"Hi, Donna!" Tiffany said finishing her cereal.  
  
"Hi, Donna!" Eric said back, kissing her good morning as he put his yellow cereal bowl in the sink. He's had that bowl since he was three years old.  
  
"Doesn't Eric look cute?" Tiffany asked Donna clearly her Mother's daughter.  
  
"He's a real stud muffin!" Donna laughed  
  
"Quit holding back and say what you really feel," Eric kissed Donna on the lips and Tiffany on the cheek, with the child there it was like being in someone else's family portrait. "I'll see you later."  
  
Some couples were not meant to have children.  
  
"Call me at lunch time." Donna said as she escorted him out the door. He did look adorable in his suit.  
  
"Bye, Eric!" Tiffany waved.  
The phone call  
  
While Donna was working on a freelance article for an arts and entertainment St. Louis weekly and Tiffany was taking her nap her cell phone rang.  
  
"Hi, Donna." Jackie said in a content voice  
  
"Hi, Jackie-Now do you care to tell me what this was all about?"  
  
"Yes! I'm sorry for not telling you before. I just didn't want anyone to know about my idea."  
  
"Care to tell me now?"  
  
"I am in Pennsylvania."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because Steven bought me a cottage! And I came here to surprise him and we had a wonderful night-and I got him to agree on the double wedding, too! Even though he doesn't want to talk to Eric again. He said he'll do it for me, Tiffany, Mrs. Forman, and you."  
  
"Are we sure we want to put them in a room together?"  
  
"Steven apologized for what happened that night. Is Tiffany up from her afternoon nap?"  
  
"No. Do you want me to wake her up so you can talk to her? She misses you."  
  
"I know. I miss her, too. I'll call back later-Steven says he has a surprise for me, so I have to go now. I'm so happy I got my Steven back!"  
  
"That's great, Jackie," Donna replied "I'll talk to you later."  
  
She was unsure about the double wedding. She was going to have to talk to Eric about it and hoped for the best.  
Jackie rested her head on Steven's chest tracing his scar with her finger making sure not to irritate it.  
  
"Steven, Donna has me wondering if maybe the double wedding isn't such a good idea after all? Maybe, I shouldn't have brought up the idea again."  
  
"You have my word that nothings going to happen between me and ERIC."  
  
"I know, Steven. Donna's going to talk to Eric tonight about it."  
  
'Great,' Hyde thought, 'That dill hole can either make or break the day'  
  
"Regardless, we're still getting married on that day." Hyde did not care what Forman had to say about it.  
Donna made an early dinner for Tiffany and put her to bed after Jackie phoned in again. Eric would be coming home from work soon. She put the salad on the table.  
  
"Hi, honey, I'm home."  
  
"Ssh, Ward, I put the Beaver to bed." Donna kissed him. This was going to be difficult.  
  
"Why so early?"  
  
"So we could have an adult dinner." Eric was no dummy, he was knew Donna since they were little kids in Point Place.  
  
"And talk about something, right?"  
  
"Yeah-Jackie called."  
  
"Oh, where did she have to go that was so important?" Eric asked-wishing for a glass of wine and nothing more.  
  
"To find Hyde. Seems he bought her a cottage in Pennsylvania and he was hiding out there. Too make a long story short-Jackie persuaded Hyde to have the double wedding after all---"  
  
"And now it's up to me, and if I say no, I'll be the bad guy," Eric sighed, "I love you, Donna. I'll do it for you. My Mother wants this double wedding too. But I hope you aren't expecting Hyde and me to kiss and make up?"  
  
"No. Jackie and I both accept the fact that it's up to the both of you."  
  
Great how this news falls when he had one of his support group meetings tomorrow night.  
  
Eric kissed her and looked up, "Donna, I think our dinner is burning."  
  
"Damn! I forgot about the chicken." Donna turned the oven off and took out the burnt cookie sheet. This was for the garbage can now.  
  
"The salads fine, sit down, relax."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm not hungry-I had a big lunch." She didn't know if he made that up or not because of her news.  
  
Even if Hyde and Eric didn't want to speak to each other at least they both put their feelings aside for the women in their lives.  
  
It was a start.  
  
"Did you finish your article today?"  
  
"Yeah. Tiffany was good. Jackie's picking her up tomorrow."  
  
'With Hyde?' Eric thought. Even though he did have the nine to five excuse known as work and the seven to eight excuse of his support group.  
  
"By herself, Eric."  
  
"How did you know what I was thinking?"  
  
"You aren't the only one who knows the other one. She wants to help me pick out a wedding dress."  
  
"Why aren't you going to wear the wedding dress you wore the first time we got married?"  
  
"That's too formal for a second wedding, don't you think?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Maybe-but we shouldn't try to out do Jackie and Hyde."  
  
'He's ruining it all ready and I'm supposed to keep my ****ing cool, when it's my wedding, too?'  
  
"I just want you to have the wedding you deserve. Not some cut-rate it looks like we got married in a Vegas chapel wedding." He picked at the salad with his fork.  
  
"I know, I love you for it. I'm sure your Mother has definite ideas for this wedding."  
  
Donna got up and rubbed his shoulders.  
  
"You have my word nothings going to happen between me and Hyde." Eric replied not realizing those were the similar words that Hyde had said to Jackie only hours earlier.  
  
It was a start. 


	6. Pick Up Sticks

Chapter 6 Pick Up Sticks  
  
Early June  
  
The rain was lightly hitting the windshield as Eric and Donna were  
  
driving to Point Place to see Kitty and Red. Kitty told Donna on the phone they needed to discuss something very important over Sunday dinner and it had nothing to do with the wedding or Steven and Eric.  
  
"I've got a bad feeling about this,"  
  
Eric said not meaning to quote Star Wars, but it was true he did have a bad feeling about this. With all of the planning Kitty and couldn't be bothered all he had to do was show up Red—and it had nothing to do with the futile plan of getting two former best friends back together—Eric did have a terrible feeling about the whole thing. —What if one of his parents was sick? The last time he saw them they looked fine—infact Red who was a few years older than Donna's Father looked younger and was more active. Kitty was still an active person, too—Granted neither one of them could climb Mount Everest but neither could he and Donna.  
  
"What if there's something wrong with Mom or Dad?"  
  
"Eric," Donna put her hand on his knee, "You have the knack to worry about things that aren't there. We just saw them last week and they were fine. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."  
  
"Poor little naïve but super hot Donna," Eric sighed turning the steering wheel, "We're talking about Red and Kitty Forman when is there ever nothing to worry about?"  
  
"I swear if he gets twitchy or cries I'm going downstairs to watch the James Bond marathon on TNT."* Red said frustrated.  
  
"You'll do no such thing, Red." 'How can that possibly help his recovery?' Kitty thought.  
  
Kitty and Red did not know about Eric and Hyde's fight in New York City nor Eric's relapse. Everyone thought it was best not to tell them. Red almost disowned his own son once and no one wanted to put Kitty through that heartache—but as a retired nurse she knew all about the possibility of Eric relapsing. Red's attitude concerning his son was not going to help in the matter.  
  
"Recovery is bull****." Red definitely favored the foot in the ass approach whether he was shortchanged in the supermarket check out line or dealing with his dumb ass son who decided at age 38 to develop a Cocaine habit.  
  
"And that's why your son barely talks to you about anything other than the weather or his job." Kitty fanned the magazines that no one was really going to read anyway on the coffee table as she waited for the kids to arrive.  
  
This Town Holds No More For Me  
  
Over the roast and potatoes Kitty decided to bring the subject up knowing that Red wouldn't handle it with tact and gentleness.  
  
"What is it, Mom?" Eric asked pushing his plate away, he couldn't eat anymore.  
  
At that moment even Donna had to admit this was going to be big news and maybe something to worry about after all.  
  
"We're selling the house—" Kitty was relieved to get it out.  
  
"What?!" Eric replied  
  
"We're moving to Florida." Red added  
  
"What?!" Eric asked again  
  
Kitty and Red went into their reasons such, as they were both retired, no more harsh Wisconsin winters, and that he and Laurie were grown and with him in St Louis and Laurie a rare visitor they didn't need to be in Point Place anymore, and selling the house even if they had to take a loss would give them some extra money as social security and pensions were hardly a drop in the bucket in today's economy.  
  
"That's just great," Eric stood up, "Really great." He went upstairs and into his old room.  
  
"Eric," Donna opened the door, "It's not as bad as you think."  
  
He was lying on the bed looking at the ceiling.  
  
"It's not?" He didn't want to tell her that if there was a Coke line stretching from New York to LA and back again he'd have done it right then and there.  
  
"If moving to Florida makes your parents happy maybe we should support them?"  
  
"Donna-whose side are you on?"  
  
"Eric, there's no sides to be on you're acting like a baby."  
  
"That's so typical of you to say." 'Ouch, I shouldn't have said that' he thought.  
  
"What is that supposed to mean?"  
  
"You had your Father sell his house just to be vindictive." Eric sat up. He didn't want to fight with her.  
  
"Excuse me?" Although it was true they weren't together then—but she wasn't doing it to be vindictive. She thought it would help the situation and expedite their divorce not to mention that Chicago had more senior citizen groups for her Father.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I didn't have my Dad sell the house to hurt you more. I thought it would help matters and make our divorce go more smoothly. I love you, you jackass!"  
  
Donna tried to remember they were getting remarried next month and she did love him skinny build, annoying Star Wars fetish, and all.  
  
Eric faced her, "I love you, too, Donna! So why are we fighting?"  
  
"Tell me, Eric."  
  
"Lay with me," he asked—the urge there just waiting for one of his trigger points to completely go off like it did the last time. "I don't want to go back downstairs right now."  
  
"Sure." Donna wondered was he fighting the urge to get high? She didn't want to bring the subject up if she didn't have to.  
  
They fell asleep in each other's arms.  
  
New York City  
  
While Hyde was teaching Tiffany how to ride her bike in Central Park Jackie was trying to get to Donna on the phone. No answer.  
  
"Hello, Donna. It's me Jackie, again. How can we plan this wedding properly if you aren't accepting calls? Tear yourself away from the scrawny boy for one second and call back when you can."  
  
Jackie and Mrs. Forman were planning this wedding and Donna seemed to go along with their ideas. Except the dress she didn't know what she wanted to do with the dress-Donna only said she wanted it to be special. She went in the kitchen to get an iced tea and wait for Steven and Tiffany to come back. She would have went to the park with them but she wanted them to bond with each other. The first night when they were all back in the apartment after Jackie came back with Tiffany from St. Louis it was tense for the five year old. But Steven was patient and read to her that night and told her he would never do anything to frighten her again.  
  
Her phone rang. Finally! It'd better be Donna.  
  
"Hi, Jackie," Donna yawned she and Eric just woke up, it wasn't their intent to fall asleep it just sort of happened, "What did you want?"  
  
"You sound tired."  
  
"I am—but it's not because I'm 40."  
  
"I got my new issue of Bride's magazine and I wanted to fax you some pictures—but your machine isn't on."  
  
"Oh, sorry. Can't you just email them?"  
  
"I tried that. Your mailbox was full—and I didn't want to send them to Eric's address because it'll ruin the surprise."  
  
"We had a fight," Donna sighed, "But we're okay now." Eric was downstairs probably talking to his Mother about the move.  
  
"What about?" It didn't take long for them two to fight. That made Jackie sad. It was one thing for them to have arguments over Eric's Coke dependence but over anything else and it worried her.  
  
"Kitty and Red are selling the house and moving to Florida and Eric is pissed about it."  
  
"I can understand that. There are a lot of memories attached to that house especially the basement, for all of us. Did you tell Eric that?"  
  
"No." Donna didn't think she had to.  
  
"Maybe you should. Guess who phoned me the other day?"  
  
"Who?" Donna asked hoping the answer wasn't "Kelso".  
  
"Pam Macy!" Point Place High's own resident sl**.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because she's lonely now, divorced with three kids living in Pittsburgh- and is under the impression we were friends. So, I'll send her some cosmetic samples to make her day. She told me Point Place High is going to be demolished and they're going to build a new modern high school not far from the interstate."  
  
"Oh great—Eric's not going to take that well, either." Donna sighed.  
  
"You knew Eric always had a sentimental side."  
  
'When he wasn't being a sexist moron' Donna thought. "Yeah, I know— that's one of the traits I love about him. How are you and Hyde doing?"  
  
Donna had to change the subject.  
  
"Great. You'd have thought he'd have fought to keep us apart—like how he might have in the past, but he didn't. I do believe and you cannot tell another living soul this—I think Steven wanted to be rescued."  
  
That was a difficult image for Donna to picture.  
  
"Jackie, I have to go. Tell Hyde and Tiffany I said 'hi'. And when I get home I'll put my fax machine on. See ya."  
  
"Bye, Donna." Jackie noticed a worry in her voice that didn't seem to be there even when Eric relapsed. She hoped Donna was all right.  
  
Donna went down the stairs as Eric was walking upstairs. He was carrying a folded newspaper under his arm.  
  
"I'll spare you my melodramatics and won't tell you what I read in the paper." Eric walked by her and back to his room.  
  
Which wouldn't be his room much longer. Even though he had his own apartment there was something comforting about knowing if God forbid something ever happened you had your safety net of your childhood bedroom. Kitty told Eric over marble cake and herbal tea that they weren't going to put the house on the market until after the wedding. That didn't make him feel better. What was happening to the little town he grew up in?  
  
"Oh, you found out about Point Place High." Donna turned around and followed Eric back to his room.  
  
"How did you find out?"  
  
"Jackie told me on the phone just now. She found out from Pam Macy."  
  
"I know you don't think it's a big deal, Donna—so I won't bother you by freaking out." He sat at his desk and unfolded the paper.  
  
"Eric, it's not like I don't care. But these things happen."  
  
Eric stood up, "These things happen? Maybe in other towns, but this is Point Place, Wisconsin. Our school is going to be torn down by a wrecking ball to build some ugly modernist structure off the interstate. Which makes me wonder what they are going to put in that empty lot? That's another reason why my parents have to sell—the property taxes are going up, The Hub is now a Starbucks, Pricemart is gone, Halverson's department store went out of business two years ago and is now a mini mall—and the crux of it all-Is that there never will be proof that the Forman's and Pinciotti's even lived next store. It will be as if WE never existed. Tell me that doesn't bother you, Donna."  
  
Donna hugged Eric, "But we have each other," She kissed him lightly on the lips, "You have to remember the kids who hang at Starbucks to them that is their Hub. The first Freshman class to enter the new high school won't give a f*** about Point Place High—Come on, let's go for a drive. I brought my camera." She didn't want to tell Eric that it did sadden her about other people living in their houses. It still bothered her a bit about the new owners, but nothing could be done about it. It was hard to fathom this house not belonging to Kitty and Red Forman. With the sounds of Red yelling and the scents of Kitty's cooking. The basement—the circle: Eric, Donna, Hyde, Jackie, Kelso, and Fez.  
  
"Fine. Make sure you take a picture of the Welcome to Point Place sign in the town center before they take that away, too." Eric replied sadly.  
  
He Ain't Heavy  
  
Jackie woke up to Hyde kissing her.  
  
"Hey," She smiled, he tasted like chocolate ice cream, "How was your day?"  
  
"Cool," Hyde replied letting himself be happy, Jackie was determined to knock down the rest of his Great Wall of Hyde, "Tiffany has a surprise for you."  
  
"Close your eyes, Mommy!" She called from the next room  
  
"Okay—what are you two up to?"  
  
"You'll see." Hyde led her to the living room area  
  
"Open them."  
  
Jackie smiled when she saw Tiffany in a little made to order jean jacket and youth sized tinted sunglasses.  
  
"You're so cute!" Jackie beamed  
  
"Whatever," Tiffany replied giggling  
  
Jackie picked her up and hugged her, "I thought you two were bike riding?"  
  
"We were," Hyde replied, "Then I figured someone's got to teach this girl all about being Zen."  
  
"That's cool." Tiffany said in her Mother's shoulder  
  
Jackie smiled and kissed her on the head, "Why don't you go wash up, okay, sweetie?"  
  
"Uh..okay, Mommy. But I like being dirty! It's fun!"  
  
Jackie put her down so she could go to her room.  
  
"You're awesome, Steven." She put her arms around him and pulled him close.  
  
"Whatever."  
  
"You're not doing that with me anymore." And she kissed him tight on the lips.  
  
"I love you, Jackie." Hyde replied, whispering in her ear.  
  
"I know. That's cool."  
  
Eric's birthday (Author's note, I know the writer's made them one month apart but I'm changing it for the sake of the plot)  
  
12:00 AM  
  
"Wha-t the---" Eric woke up to the smell of honey and almonds on his face.  
  
"Happy Birthday, Eric." Donna kissed him as she continued to massage the sticky scrub she purchased from Jackie on his face.  
  
"Can I ask what you're doing?"  
  
"Making you pretty," she laughed. She dipped a washcloth in a bowl of water that she had set on the end table.  
  
"Hmm, being 40 isn't so bad." Eric replied as Donna wiped the sticky concoction off his face.  
  
"Eric you ain't seen nothing yet!" Donna giggled as she kissed him full this time.  
  
'Oh—my—she never—only twice in all the time------God' Eric's eyes fluttered as Donna gave him phase one of his birthday present.  
  
12:40 AM  
  
"I love you." Eric replied after his birthday sex. That wasn't the reason why he loved Donna—she knew that. She was the only constant he had.  
  
"I love you, too. I guess we should go to bed now for real. If we're going to go to your parents house we're going to have to leave early."  
  
"Are we taking your car this time?" Eric asked  
  
"As a matter of fact we are." Donna tried to keep a straight face even though they were in the dark; she didn't want Eric to see her facial expression. It would ruin phase two of his birthday present.  
  
"Good. Because I think my battery is going to die soon. The engines making noise."  
  
"You can take it to the mechanic when we get back," Donna yawned, it was one fantastic yet tiring night. She put her head on Eric's chest.  
  
"I hope you liked your birthday so far."  
  
"Are you kidding? It is like the best fortieth birthday ever!" After all these years and their trials and tribulations he could still make her laugh.  
  
She wondered why she almost let it all go before falling asleep, her head buried in his chest.  
  
Later that day:  
  
"Mom—you're crushing me." Kitty lavished Eric with hugs and kisses. Her baby was forty years old! She was happy and sad at the same time. She was grateful that he was here to celebrate it.  
  
"It's not every day my baby turns forty!" Kitty gushed  
  
It was just a small gathering in the Forman house-Kitty, Red, and  
  
Donna. Laurie made an excuse but Kitty knew that's what it was an excuse. She probably protested not coming to Eric's birthday party because she was being forced to attend to the wedding.  
  
"Congratulations, son." Red was going to shake his son's hand but wound up giving him a hug. Deep down he did love the dumbass after all. It was a given.  
  
"Before we have our cake, I'd like everyone to go outside." Said Donna  
  
"Oh, this is about your present!" Kitty smiled and clapped.  
  
"Eric, close your eyes." Donna said, holding his hand leading him, Kitty, and Red to the backyard.  
  
"I know what it is!" Kitty squealed—Red didn't, he fell asleep watching TV when it was delivered.  
  
"Can I open my eyes now?"  
  
Donna flicked the switch from the remote control as she told Eric to open his eyes as the garage door opened.  
  
"Oh my god! Is this for me?!" It was a vintage 1987 navy blue Corvette. She threw him the keys.  
  
"I love it, Donna!" He kissed her on the lips, "Come on, let's go for a drive around the block."  
  
"I'll get the cake ready for when you two come back." Kitty replied.  
  
"Very nice car, son." Red still missed his vintage Corvette. His son was one lucky bastard indeed.  
  
"Wow! This car is awesome, Donna! You didn't have to---How much did this cost you---?"  
  
"Eric, shut up and drive."  
  
"My lady got me a Corvette! This is too cool!"  
  
When they got to a stop sign, Eric noticed a brown envelope sticking out from the visor.  
  
"What's this?"  
  
"Phase three of your birthday present."  
  
They had the road to themselves so no one cared how long they stayed at the stop sign.  
  
"Donna, you didn't have to go to all this----"  
  
"Eric, open it."  
  
"Tickets? For the 1st annual Star Wars convention for the greater St. Louis area, I've always wanted to go to one of these! Donna, you rule!" He went to hug his fiancée and was pulled back by his seatbelt.  
  
He undid the belt and kissed her on the lips, "Thank you, Donna, this is one great birthday!"  
  
"You're welcome, Eric." Donna undid her seatbelt and put her hands on his shoulders. "I wanted to make this day extra special because there was a chance we could've lost you."  
  
"I know," Eric replied putting his head down, "I'm sorry."  
  
Donna raised his chin with her hand, "I know."  
  
"Hey, that's almost like Leia and Han---"  
  
"Eric—NO MORE STAR WARS!" Donna pretended to be angry.  
  
"You love it, Donna, or you wouldn't have purchased these tickets! Can I get you to dr---"  
  
"No." He wanted them to dress up as Han Solo and Princess Leia for their first wedding. It took forever to talk him out of that one.  
  
"Please?" He asked like he was four and wanted candy instead of 40 and wanting to dress up with his fiancée in Star Wars costumes at an actual Star Wars convention.  
  
"No."  
  
"Okay—if you repeat phase one of my birthday present!"  
  
Donna laughed, "We'll see Eric, it depends on how naughty you are."  
  
Another car was finally behind them at the stop sign and beeped its horn.  
  
"Hey, who told that dill hole to come by and ruin our fun?" Eric mocked a disappointed face.  
  
"Well, we should be getting back anyway, your Mom baked a cake for you."  
  
Eric and Donna were a little disappointed to hear what was about to come out of the mouths of the younger driver and their adolescent passengers behind them.  
  
"Come on, you OLD people, we haven't got all day!"  
  
"When did we become old people?" Eric and Donna replied to themselves in unison.  
  
Kids Today!  
  
Two weeks later  
  
Eric with one eye open hit the snooze bar and tried to go back to sleep but was distracted by Donna throwing things in a bag.  
  
"Good you're up!" Donna said, kissing him on the cheek and going back to her packing.  
  
"In more ways than one," Eric groaned, "Um—going somewhere?" Eric stretched in the bed. What time was it? He was never a morning person.  
  
"Jackie called and wants me and your Mom to spend the day in New York. On the private jet—and Hyde has to work with some band that he "owed a favor to"—so Jackie wants to know will you babysit Tiffany?"  
  
Eric wasn't in the mood today to be fun, cool "Uncle" Eric—but he did like Tiffany so he wasn't going to say no, but he hated how this came up at the last minute.  
  
"Okay, what time do we leave for New York?" Eric sat up in bed.  
  
"You don't leave for anywhere. Jackie's bringing Tiffany here." Donna playfully pushed him back down.  
  
"Good. Then I'm going back to bed."  
  
"Uh, you can't do that, Eric."  
  
"Why?" he buried his head in his pillow.  
  
"Because they're coming in like twenty minutes."  
  
Eric forced himself up. "And when did you find out about all this?"  
  
"Earlier this morning when Jackie woke ME up! I was nice letting you sleep."  
  
"Donna—"  
  
"What?"  
  
He looked at her and she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him. The kind of beauty that inspired songs to begin with classic FM guitar riffs and end with an elegant, well designed piano end piece.  
  
"I love you."  
  
Donna kissed him on the lips, "That's sweet, now get dressed."  
  
He could only smile back at her.  
  
Later:  
  
Jackie, Donna, and Kitty were having lunch at the Four Seasons hotel after a marathon session of shopping and dealing with wedding consultants. Donna didn't see a point with wedding consultants. Why did you need to pay someone else good money to tell you what you needed to make your wedding day special? She still didn't know what to do with her dress and didn't know why she was making it a big issue. A light rain was hitting the windows as the shoppers, famous people trying to go incognito in Ray-Bans, tourists with cameras draped over their necks, and homeless people begging for loose change across the street.  
  
"Donna, hello! Did you hear any word I said?" Jackie asked putting her fork over her salad plate.  
  
"No."  
  
"What's wrong, dear? Did you and Eric have a fight?" Kitty asked getting quite relaxed on the chardonnay.  
  
"No. Just wedding jitters, I guess."  
  
"Wedding jitters? Donna this is your second time marrying Eric. How can you have jitters? Now—this is my first time marrying Steven...I should be the one---"  
  
Donna rolled her eyes, not meaning to start an argument, "Jackie-Christ. The world does not revolve around you and Hyde."  
  
Jackie looked back at her with hurt eyes.  
  
"I'm sorry," Donna replied, "I didn't mean that."  
  
"Okay...no fighting girls. It's bad enough my two boys won't speak to each other—The both of you are nervous. Hmm, this bottles empty. You'll have to order another one for the table, Jackie."  
  
Donna thought that would have been funnier if it didn't hit her at that very moment where Eric got his addictive personality from.  
  
"I think you had enough, Mrs. Forman." Donna said  
  
"Let's get you some coffee." Jackie replied, trying not to let Donna's comment bother her, she did apologize after she said it, but it still hurt.  
  
Back in St. Louis  
  
"Were you scared?" Eric asked Tiffany after they went up the Gateway Arch.  
  
"No! Were you scared, Eric?"  
  
He laughed. "No," Then he thought if he was five, he might have been crying clinging to Kitty while Red yelled at him telling him to suck it up, be a man, and stop crying. "You want to buy some souvenirs for your Mommy?"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
"The malls underground, it's really awesome."  
  
"I have my own credit card!"  
  
"You do?" Jackie's bank gave special junior credit cards for the children of wealthy and connected parents. It only had a credit limit of fifty dollars but when you are five years it old it feels like a million.  
  
"Yeah—I have FIFTY dollars! Plus the paper money Mommy gave me!"  
  
'Paper Money' laughed Eric. When he was five he was lucky if he had two shiny new quarters to rub together. Let alone a credit card with a fifty dollar limit and paper money. 'Money from your Grandmother...it's going right in the bank so you don't waste it on garbage!' Red would yell over the Christmas Yule log on television.  
  
"Wow. Maybe, I should buy Donna a present, too?" Eric asked Tiffany, holding her hand in the crowd.  
  
"Buy her a ring pop!" Tiffany suggested.  
  
"That may not be a bad idea." Eric smiled like a five year old on a mission. It was at that moment that his cell phone rang it was probably Donna saying how much she missed his body.  
  
A few hours later:  
  
Hyde was on a plane back to New York City after having spent a wasted afternoon in Boston. He was a man of his word and was happy he only had to do one track instead of a whole album. He wanted to get away from the music business for awhile. Jackie left a message saying she was taking Donna and Mrs. Forman to a play and that Mrs. Forman had gotten a little tipsy at lunch and they had to pour the coffee in her. Hyde laughed, good for Mrs. Forman. She deserved to go off every once in awhile. He threw his keys on the desk and he felt that he wasn't alone in the apartment. Was Forman here with Tiffany? He knew Jackie went to St. Louis to drop Tiffany off earlier.  
  
"Steven Hyde—" Enter a Fortune 500 man in a Seville Row suit putting his golf clubs against the wall.  
  
'Oh f**' Hyde thought 'Jackie's ex-husband. Forman would have been better'.  
  
"You are?"  
  
"Bradley Worthington," he sized him up and couldn't believe Jackie loved this low-life. "Before you even think about marrying my ex-wife—we're going to have a little talk."  
  
"Don't talk down to me you son of a bitch. "  
  
"Dealing with people you don't like through violence--must have been that trailer park upbringing."  
  
Hyde tried hard not to lose it for Jackie and Tiffany's sake.  
  
"Say what you came to say then you can leave."  
  
"You forget whose apartment this is. Jackie may have gotten it in the divorce settlement, but it's mine. And so is that private jet."  
  
"Are you here to declare ownership?"  
  
"As a matter of fact, I am."  
  
"Go on." Hyde was losing his cool with every sentence.  
  
"I found out that you plan on adopting Tiffany after you marry Jackie. You don't want to do that," 'He's going to buy me off' "I think this is a fair amount."  
  
He presented Hyde a personal check for two hundred thousand dollars.  
  
"I don't want your f***ing money!" Hyde ripped the check and threw it in Brad's face.  
  
"Take the money or you will leave me with no alternative but to stop it legally. Because I'm not about to let my daughter become Tiffany Hyde."  
  
"You don't love Tiffany. You might buy her expensive things, but you don't spend real time with her. You're a terrible influence on her and I have news for you if you think your money can buy your daughter's love. You are an arrogant son of a bitch."  
  
"Jackie always had a penchant for low lives. I don't want you adopting my daughter---You are scum--if Jackie wants you, I could care less—infact the more I think about it the more I should file for custody of Tiffany that way you will have no influence on her at all."  
  
"F*** you! Hyde would be a great Father!" 'Forman? Where did he come from?' Before anyone could react to anything Eric did the old Jeff Gillooly on Brad with one his precious five irons.  
  
"Get up!"  
  
"You bastard!" Brad looked up at Eric. Eric had received a phone call that he had to take Tiffany back on the private jet and he didn't want to put her on the plane alone even though there would be sweet attendant to make sure her every need would be taken care of. But not her emotional needs and Eric knew she'd have cried if he didn't accompany her. She wanted to sleep with her Barbie headphones on because Jackie wasn't there and didn't like her sleeping with headphones on—and Eric who felt so jet lagged fell asleep on the guest bed waiting for Donna, his Mother, and Jackie to return.  
  
"No! You are the bastard! Hyde loves your daughter! You probably will shove her off to some Swiss boarding school. You are just jealous that he'll be the better Father—and that Tiffany loves him and doesn't love you!"  
  
Forman defending Hyde? Did Hell suddenly freeze over? Were pigs flying?  
  
"Brad, what in the hell are you doing here?" Jackie didn't help him up but noticed the golf club in Eric's hand.  
  
"Eric, what the hell?" Donna said, trying to piece together why Jackie's ex-husband was on the floor clutching his knee and Eric was holding one Brad's golf clubs. Before throwing it down on the floor.  
  
"He said some uncalled for things! I'm going for a walk." ('but I'm not going to get high' he whispered in Donna's ear.) Going right passed his Mother.  
  
"What did you say, Bradley? Steven what's going on?" Jackie asked  
  
Kitty noticed the torn check on the floor.  
  
"I'll tell you in private." Hyde retreated to the kitchen.  
  
"I should f***ing sue your friend!" No one was helping him up, even Kitty the retired nurse.  
  
"I'm not chancing it, I'm going to catch up to Eric." Donna replied.  
  
Eric got as far as the lobby.  
  
"What happened?" asked Donna, happy that he wasn't wandering around aimlessly. She put her hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Tiffany and I were having a good time. We went inside the Arch. and while we were on our way shopping I got a call from some guy named Phil from JFK—and---I really don't want to talk about this. I'm just glad Tiffany had her music on and didn't hear any of it. I got you a present."  
  
Eric pulled a cherry ring pop out of his pocket.  
  
"A ring pop? Wow! The last time you got me one, we were seven years old!"  
  
"It was Tiffany's idea."  
  
"Aw....How cute—Wait a minute---were you defending Hyde?"  
  
Eric put his hands in his trouser pockets, "Donna—I don't---It just sort of happened—Hyde was just letting that pompous jerk talk down to him—and I—don't want to talk about this."  
  
He turned to go back inside. His Mother was probably worried sick.  
  
"He said what?! I should go in there and finish the other knee!" Jackie said. Brad had some nerve "and Eric---"  
  
"I don't want to talk about it, Jackie." Hyde said finishing his beer.  
  
"Oh, I left Mrs. Forman in the living room alone, I'm a bad host! We'll talk about this later, Steven you can bet on it." She kissed him on the lips, and he realized why he didn't hit the ass****.  
  
"I'm going to you use your office for a bit, okay?"  
  
"Steven, it's our office." Jackie reminded.  
  
Brad made it to one of the chairs in the living room as Kitty came back from checking on Tiffany.  
  
"You're leaving." Jackie said—she didn't know how they were going to do deal with the adoption situation but right now she wanted her ex out of her apartment.  
  
"I'm in pain."  
  
"Too bad. My attorney will call your attorney. Now get out!"  
  
Donna and Eric were re-entering Jackie's apartment while she was kicking out Brad.  
  
"You want me to throw him in the elevator?" Eric quipped.  
  
"Do that and I will sue you, " Brad mumbled.  
  
"Shut up!" Jackie said pushing him into the elevator. Let James the doorman handle throwing him in a taxi.  
  
"Thank god that dill hole is gone." Eric replied sitting on the sofa.  
  
"Are you all right, Eric?" asked Kitty  
  
"Yes, I'm fine."  
  
"Come on—Mrs. Forman and Donna lets go the pharmacy and gift shop downstairs."  
  
'I know what you're doing. Please don't' Eric thought.  
  
"Yes, that's a very good idea!" Kitty laughed as she kissed her son on the cheek.  
  
'Well, I'm just going to stay here on the sofa'  
  
"Yeah, we'll be back later." Donna kissed Eric to wipe the smirk off his face.  
  
Twenty minutes later  
  
Hyde poured the root beer over the vanilla ice cream and put a straw in the small Disneyworld mug for Tiffany.  
  
"Thank you, Steven!"  
  
"You're welcome."  
  
"Doesn't Eric want a root beer float?" He was trying to do the New York Times crossword in ink.  
  
"Why don't you ask him?" Hyde had trouble processing all this—what they were supposed to be friends now because Eric whacked Brad in the knee with a golf club and said he'd be a great Father?  
  
"Okay," Tiffany left her mug on the counter and ran to the living room to Eric. "Hi, Eric."  
  
"Hi."  
  
"Do you want a root beer float? Steven made me one. They're good!"  
  
"No thanks, sweetie." Eric could eat her up, she was so cute.  
  
"Are you two still mad with each other? I hear Mommy talking to Donna on the phone!" She asked Eric with wide eyes. She liked Steven and Eric. She wanted them to be friends. Her Mommy showed her pictures of when they were all younger. She said Hyde and Eric were best friends, they knew each other before she knew them. That made Tiffany sad she wanted them to be best friends again.  
  
Eric put the paper down and stood up, holding Tiffany's hand as they walked to the kitchen together. Hyde was checking his voice mail when Eric came in with Tiffany. She went back to her root beer float.  
  
"Hyde," Eric began. He didn't know what he was going to say.  
  
"Eric," Hyde interrupted him. He wasn't sure if he wanted to hear what Eric had to say. He watched Tiffany take the straw out of her mug and took her spoon with her initial "T" engraved on the handle to scoop out the ice cream. She looked at them with hopeful eyes.  
  
Eric went over the refrigerator and took out a can of soda. Unsure of what was going to happen between him and Hyde. He was only sure of one thing at the moment. "He," Eric started to say referring to Brad, he didn't want to say his name with Tiffany present. Thankfully she had her music on and didn't know what went on today.  
  
He knew Donna, His Mom, and Jackie only went downstairs so they could make up. Guy's friendships were different than women's friendships it wasn't as simple as that-leave the room and come back and everything is fixed. It just wasn't as simple as that.  
  
"He was out of line," Eric replied nervously as he lightly shook his soda can, "He was out of line about you. That's all." Eric walked back into the living room waiting for Donna to return.  
  
"Do you like Eric now?" Tiffany asked, slurping the bottom part of the float with her straw.  
  
"Remember what I taught you, Tiffany? Yeah, he's cool." 


	7. The Inquiring Mind Of Steven Hyde Wants ...

Chapter 7 The Inquiring Mind Of Steven Hyde Wants To Know  
  
Mid June  
  
Jackie pretended to be asleep as she watched Hyde strum his guitar in their bedroom. He didn't want to talk about "the situation" with her ex-husband nor about Eric. Jackie and Donna (who also said Eric didn't want to talk about it, either) knew they were going to be okay, that the worst was behind them and it would just take some time for them to get back to something called a 'friendship'. Jackie was worried about Brad, he had the money and the connections to really cause trouble for their household. Jackie had money for top attorneys but she didn't have the Country Club Golf House Connections like he did. Brad knew a great many judges and attorneys personally. She wasn't going to let him have custody of Tiffany nothing is as strong as a loving Mother's will. BUT Brad could stop the adoption and Steven had a small criminal record that would go against him. Social workers could come in and find his various stashes which Jackie told him if he couldn't stop smoking it, to keep it in one specific place mostly near a toilet for a quick flush. There was a what's-going-to- happen-to-us cloud hanging over them while she made sure his suit was finished for the wedding and the last of the preparations were made. She also didn't want Tiffany to know what was going on. The little girl has been through enough. Hyde put his guitar up against the wall and sighed deeply like trying to suck up all the bad in the world. He was starting to come towards her so she closed her eyes and pretended to be still asleep.  
  
"Jackie, wake up." He lightly shook her shoulders.  
  
"Hi, Steven," She kissed his cheek and watched as he pulled away, "What's wrong?"  
  
"We really need to talk and I hate talking." He grumbled.  
  
Jackie sat up so he could sit next to her on the bed.  
  
"What is it? Is it Brad?"  
  
"Yes and no-I think we should postpone----"  
  
"NO!" Jackie crawled out of the bed and over his body to stand up. "Steven, NO!"  
  
"But-"  
  
"No, buts, I love you Steven Hyde and I'm not about to let you run away. F*** Brad. We'll get through this.just don't say you don't want to marry me." She wrapped her arms around his body and pulled him to her. The smell of her perfume rapturing him in again.  
  
"I do want to marry you, but I'm going to tear apart this family. And that's what I'm good at-tearing apart a family."  
  
"Ssh, Steven. Don't talk bull****. You are not the reason why your parents are terrible people."  
  
"I don't want you to lose Tiffany."  
  
"I'm not going to lose OUR daughter. You don't have to worry about that. We're getting married in a month. We deserve to be happy, Steven. Brad can't take our happiness away."  
  
Hyde kissed her, "You are an amazing woman, Jackie."  
  
"I know-" She kissed his stubble worn cheek, "But I'm glad you realize that."  
  
The phone rang and Jackie went to answer it.  
  
'It has to be Donna' thought Hyde and he was right as Jackie took the phone into another room as she playfully slapped his cheek on the way out the door.  
  
"Hi, Steven!"  
  
He smiled in spite of himself wanting to enjoy the bliss. "Hi, Tiffany. Do you need help with your buttons?"  
  
"Yeah, I can't reach them!"  
  
"I'll help you."  
  
"I got another package but James said I need an adult to accompany me to get it-and Mommy's on the phone."  
  
'Not another one' Hyde thought. Forman was sending Tiffany a Star Wars toy a month-some old, some new, not all big and splashy sometimes just little decals and pins. And he would sign his short note cards "Your Star Wars Buddy, Eric". Hyde accepted that they had a bond, but it still made him a little uncomfortable.  
  
"Okay," Hyde said as he finished helping Tiffany with her buttons, "Let's go get your box."  
  
"It's from Eric!" Tiffany said, as Jackie was about to re enter the room.  
  
"Morning, baby." She kissed her daughter good morning.  
  
"Hi, Mommy! Steven and I are going to get my box from Eric."  
  
'Not another one' Jackie thought. Star Wars could only make her more of a tomboy, but if it made her daughter happy then that's what counted.  
  
"How's Donna---and forman?" Hyde asked  
  
"Good. Everything's all set. The only thing we all have to do is show up."  
  
She didn't want to press Hyde on writing his own vows. She thought about writing her own but she wasn't as good a writer as Donna. Jackie was just grateful for another chance with Steven.  
  
"Do I have to wear a dress?" Tiffany asked, holding Hyde's hand.  
  
"Yes!"  
  
"That sucks."  
  
"Tiffany!"  
  
Hyde laughed "Hey, she's only being honest, Jackie. Come on let's get your package."  
  
"You're gonna get it." Jackie teased her daughter.  
  
"Steven!" Tiffany said  
  
"I know where your Mommy's ticklish spots are."  
  
"Steven!" Jackie tried to run but only got as far as the hallway being tickled by her fiancée and daughter. This house has not heard laughter like that for a long time and Jackie was glad for it as the two of the most special people in her life had her giggling on the floor, tears of joy streaming down her face, and clutching her stomach.  
Dill holes and Morons  
  
In the mid afternoon Hyde found himself at an airport café in JFK. One of the indie labels he worked for was being chewed up by a big musical conglomerate to sell the Clearasil Nation neon colored cell phone plates and sweatshirts with corporate logos. They wanted to hire him on. Hyde could tell the man in his suit did not know a damn thing about rock and roll. He refused another big payoff, which made him feel he was either noble or stupid especially with a check from a record label. He called Jackie from his cell phone to let her know he'd be home soon. He finished his coffee as he mindlessly looked at the newspaper in front of him. Hyde stood up to throw his paper cup in the trash can and he could've sworn he heard someone say, "Donna, I love you.".  
  
'Forman's here?' Hyde thought as he looked out of the corner of his eye with his peripheral vision. Hyde did not want to have a meeting with Forman although he could picture Jackie and Donna loving the idea. He just had a lot to sort through and it's not like they were sixteen in the basement having an argument over who was the best pinball player. Hyde but his back against the wall watching Forman undo his tie and throw it in his briefcase with his blazer as he put on his Phantom Menace hooded sweatshirt on.-Hoping he would not notice him and go to wherever the people who were going to St. Louis were going.  
  
"hyde?" Eric asked as quietly as Hyde thought.  
  
"forman." He replied in the same fashion. 'I should've made a run for it' he thought.  
  
Eric took a deep breath, "So, um-what are you doing at the airport?"  
  
"Turning down an offer from the corporate pigs."  
  
"I'd take the money-" and Eric thought that probably made him sound capitalistic when he didn't mean it that way, "How's Jackie and Tiffany?" he asked nervously  
  
"Fine. Tiffany got your box today."  
  
Eric was waiting for the ultimatum from Hyde to stop sending Tiffany presents and loosened up a little when there wasn't one.  
  
"That's good. She's a great kid."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
The room was starting to feel claustrophobic and Eric was relieved when the departures for St. Louis were announced.  
  
"I gotta go. See you around, Hyde." Eric said almost looking him in the eye.  
  
"Later, Forman." Hyde watched Eric leave and wondered if he should tell Jackie who he saw at the airport.-Would Eric tell Donna? He told her everything else-and if Donna and Jackie talked about it on the phone- he could just hear the "Steven! How come you didn't tell me?!" fly out of Jackie's mouth.  
  
It was almost better when he and Forman weren't talking.  
Later (after Jackie put Tiffany down for a nap)  
  
Jackie was reading French Vogue when Hyde came in the living room after watching his soon to be step daughter sleep.  
  
"Hi," Hyde kissed Jackie on the cheek.  
  
"Hi, Steven-do you want to talk about something?"  
  
"Not really," he sat down next to her, "I just want to tell you before you hear it from Donna and think I'm purposely not telling you-I ran into Forman at the airport-"  
  
Jackie's eyes lit up as she put the magazine back on the glass and brass luxe coffee table.  
  
"Really?! Steven, that's so---"  
  
"It was nothing really. It was as if we were strangers-I don't know how we're going to get through that double wedding, but don't worry we will."  
  
"Did you or Eric bring up what happened with Brad?"  
  
"No," Hyde replied in you-are-joking-right way, "Guys don't talk like women."  
  
"Well maybe you guys should."  
  
"Oh, that is not an option, Jackie."  
  
"Well at least you two made an effort."  
  
"It was hardly an effort."  
  
"Steven, do you hate Eric? I want you to think about it. Do you hate him?" "No. No, I don't hate, Forman." Although almost being killed by him twice was not the most endearing trait.  
  
"I bet if Donna asks Eric, he'd say the same thing about you."  
  
"That's all f***ing nice and fine, Jackie. However there's something else."  
  
"What is it?" Jackie held his hand  
  
"I don't know. It might never be the same between Forman and I and that's the closet you are going to get to me opening up on that matter. I'm going to take a shower." He kissed her before leaving the room.  
  
When Jackie made sure that Steven was in the shower she dialed her phone.  
  
"Hi, Donna-oh damn your voice mail. Pick up." Jackie was about to hang up when she heard Donna fumble to connect.  
  
"What's up, Jackie? Eric and I just got back from the airport."  
  
"Did he tell you what happened?"  
  
"Uh-no." Donna didn't want to know  
  
"Steven and Eric saw each other at the airport."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Yeah. Steven had to meet someone there and he and Eric had a rather tense but well meaning talk with each other."  
  
"Really? Eric didn't say anything to me." Donna would have said that regardless of whether or not Eric was in the bedroom.  
  
"Maybe he was going to tell you later in bed."  
  
"I bet he's sleeping now-he gets jet lag."  
  
"Donna, do you think we should---?" Jackie trailed her words off  
  
"No. If Eric and Hyde are going to be friends they don't need us forcing it to happen."  
  
"I hate to see them stalemated like this."  
  
"I know, but at least it's better than them beating the crap out of each other." Donna advised.  
  
"True," Jackie heard Tiffany's footsteps "I have to go, Donna. Tiffany's up from her nap. I'll talk to you later."  
  
"Bye, Jackie."  
  
"Mommy!"  
  
"Hey, sweetheart-I just tucked you in."  
  
"I'm too big for naps," She sat on the couch next to her Mother, "Can I watch a movie?"  
  
"May I watch a movie?" Jackie corrected  
  
"May I watch a movie?"  
  
"Do you want to watch Beauty and Beast?"  
  
"No-Return of the Jedi!"  
  
'Damn Eric' Jackie couldn't help but laugh at the same time being annoyed with him for getting her daughter hooked on Star Wars.  
  
"Okay-put your tape in." She could always go back to her magazine while the movie played.  
  
"Mommy!"  
  
The videos were on a high shelf that Tiffany couldn't reach so Jackie had to get the tape for her daughter.  
  
"Did you write Eric a thank you card?"  
  
"Yeah." It was from some of the Strawberry Shortcake stationery kit that Jackie had purchased years ago because they were just so cute.  
  
"Good girl," Jackie handed her the tape  
  
"No, Mommy! This is Star Wars not Return of the Jedi."  
  
"Ohhhh-Sorry." Jackie gave her daughter the correct tape and put Episode IV back in its slipcase.  
  
"Can-May I have popcorn?"  
  
"It's almost-okay, sure-just one small bowl you're getting though."  
  
"Okay, Mommy!"  
  
Jackie went in the kitchen to microwave a bowl of popcorn as Steven entered the living room as the John Williams score played.  
  
"Steven! Do you want to watch Return of the Jedi? Mommy's making popcorn."  
  
He sat down next to her on the plush sofa. "Sure-" Although he thought The first (IV) Star Wars was the best and the others after it especially the new one (Phantom Menace) sucked. It wasn't about him or Forman. It was about a little girl who liked the movies.  
  
Jackie came in the popcorn five minutes later and even she couldn't resist sitting on the sofa with her daughter and fiancée watching a film. --Like a family.  
2 Days Later  
  
Hyde couldn't believe he was here. He didn't have any reason to be on an airplane today, yet that's where he was. He left while Jackie and Tiffany were asleep because he didn't want to explain it Jackie and have her get all emotional-he just left a voice mail message for her. Hyde had absolutely no reason to knock on the door yet he just did. These kind of apartment complexes didn't have doormen. He just walked up the stairs and that was that. He hoped that the red head would be home.  
  
"Forgot your keys again, Donna?" Eric looked up and was surprised to see Hyde standing there instead of his fiancée  
  
"Are you going to let me in?"  
  
"Uh-yeah, of course. Would you---"  
  
"You can skip the pleasantries, Forman. I want you to answer something for me."  
  
Eric couldn't be mad at the tone of Hyde's voice, well he could be angry, but it wouldn't be fair-and he knew it.  
  
"What?" He sat on the sofa and grabbed an ink pen off the coffee table and clicked the top on and off.  
  
"I want to know was it," Eric watched Hyde go into his jeans pocket and put a couple of Coke vials on the table, which made Eric drop the pen "Was THIS worth it?"  
  
"What?" Eric was numb, he couldn't believe Hyde was here and that he just put two vials on the table in front of him knowing full well that wasn't the smartest thing he could do.  
  
"Was this powder worth it? You hurt your parents, especially your Mother, you stole off your sister, you hurt Donna immensely, why she still loves you I don't understand-and you almost KILLED ME, not once but twice."  
  
Hyde knew the first time Eric was not hooked on drugs and it was because he found out about his affair with Donna and Eric was the one who landed in the hospital then but Red had Hyde arrested and even though the charges were dropped thanks in part to the lovely Mrs. Forman it still put a smudge on his all ready blurry record.  
  
"I'm Sorry." Was the best that Eric could reply with.  
  
"Sorry? Well that's not f**ing good enough, Forman."  
  
"What do you want me to do, Hyde?" Eric looked down at the carpet.  
  
"Donna had the pleasure of seeing you throw it away, I want to see you do the same for me."  
  
"You purchased Cocaine just so you could see me throw it away? Christ, Hyde. What if a cop---"  
  
"Stop it right there. Like you care about the police. I'm smart-I didn't get caught."  
  
Eric stood up, "You are a real ass****."  
  
"I don't care what you think of me. You are getting rid of it, because I deserve that much."  
  
"What about when you beat me up while Tiffany-------"  
  
"Don't even go there, Forman. And I hope you still don't use that as an excuse as to your relapse."  
  
"I DIDN'T."  
  
Eric grabbed the two vials from the table and pretended that they were filled with sugar because if he thought about it too hard he might not have been able to dispose of it. He undid the tops and poured the powder down the drain and threw the vials on top and turned the switch on for the garbage disposal.  
  
"Are you happy now?" Eric asked over the grinding sounds  
  
"You know something? Jackie asked me if I hated you and I told her 'no'- and it's true. But I do not like what you've become even before you put anything up your nose. You sold out, man. You are not the same Eric Forman whom I used to call my best friend. I suppose we'll still have to see each other at certain times, but I think it's best if we're no longer friends."  
  
It was a big speech for Steven Hyde. He hated dealing with his emotions and guys despite Alan Alda and Phil Donahue did not talk about their feelings especially regarding other men. But this needed to be done. It was too little too late with Forman taking a golf club to Jackie's ex and saying he'd be a "great Father". It was a case of much too little and much too late as far as Hyde was concerned.  
  
"You came all this way to---" as yet again Hyde cut Eric off  
  
Eric watched as Hyde opened up the door and without turning to face the person he's known since grade school said,  
  
"Goodbye, Forman."  
  
And with that Steven Hyde was gone on his way back to the airport to go home to New York City to return to Jackie and his soon to be step daughter.  
  
It hurt Hyde to 'rid himself' of Eric Forman but he was never going to admit it to anyone. Not Jackie and certainly not himself. 


	8. Here Come The Brides

Chapter 8 Here Come The Brides  
  
1:00PM 24 hours until the big day  
  
Eric watched as Donna seemed to throw her belongings into her suitcase. She was livid over what Hyde had done a few weeks ago but Eric knew that if Donna confronted Jackie over it their friendship would have hit a brick wall and he wouldn't be able to see Tiffany again, she was almost like a sort-of daughter to him, he wouldn't deny Hyde being Tiffany's Father but he still loved the little girl too. So it was important for Donna to let it go. Donna and Jackie briefly touched upon it as soon as they both found out about it from their respective partners both trying to remain Switzerland. It was especially difficult for Donna as she worried about Eric and the possibility of another relapse.  
  
"Eric, how long have you been standing there?" Donna asked as she put her toiletries in a Ziploc bag.  
  
"Long enough to see you go mental."  
  
"I'm sorry, but Hyde went too far. He had no right to put THAT STUFF  
  
in your presence."  
  
"It's okay, Donna." Eric kissed her on the cheek.  
  
"Are you done packing already?"  
  
"Yeah. Mine's in the car-it's a five hour drive to Point Place." Eric gently reminded her.  
  
A part of Eric wanted to whisk Donna away and they could have a nice, quiet elopement. He really didn't want to go to Point Place with the knowledge that his parents were going to sell the house, to have to share his wedding day with Hyde and Jackie, and the other things he tried to keep buried in his mind that he never wanted to come to the surface again.  
  
"I know. Just in time for your Mother to overload us with a big dinner."  
  
Donna was too nervous to eat. She only talked to Jackie briefly on the phone yesterday and she knew their plane was going to land at four o'clock. She knew Eric and Hyde would be okay in the same room together. They just wouldn't talk much. -No-they just wouldn't talk at all.  
  
"I'm ready," Donna closed her suitcase, "Let's get this drive over with."  
  
Donna breezed past Eric who thought they were getting married in twenty four hours they should be happier than THIS.  
"Steven! Do I have to wear ribbons?" Tiffany asked as Jackie was trying to fix her daughter's hair.  
  
"Jackie, if she doesn't want-----"  
  
"Steven, you don't know about fashion, that's my department. Tiffany, don't you want to look pretty for Mrs. and Mr. Forman?"  
  
"One ribbon!"  
  
Jackie sighed, "Okay, baby, I'll make you a ponytail." Although Jackie thought two pig tails with color coordinated to go with her dress ribbons would have been better than just one ponytail with one ribbon.  
  
Hyde thought Jackie should have just let Tiffany wear jeans and a t-shirt on the plane. Jackie wanted to impress too many unnecessary people.  
  
"There. All done! See how pretty you look?" Jackie showed Tiffany the results in the mirror  
  
"I have to get my drawing for Eric." Tiffany said when Jackie put her back down.  
  
"Okay, but hurry up, we have to get to the airport in a half hour."  
  
"Does that bother you, Steven?" Jackie asked when Tiffany left the room.  
  
"What? That she drew a picture for Forman? No. I'm more confident than that, Jackie." At best Forman was like an annoying "Uncle Eric" figure but Hyde was going to be the little girl's FATHER, despite what Jackie's ex thought.  
  
"In less than twenty four hours I'm going to be Mrs. Steven Hyde! Do you know how long I've waited for this?" Jackie asked clearly realizing her past mistakes.  
  
He put his arms around her and kissed the tip of her nose.  
  
"Just as long as I have." And they shared a quick intense kiss before having to leave for the airport.  
  
Later  
  
"Red! Don't touch those cheese puffs they're for the kids!" Kitty slapped it out of Red's hand  
  
There was a knock on the door and Kitty ran to answer it and before Red could steal a cheese puff, Kitty came back for the tray and placed it on the coffee table before answering the door.  
  
"Oh, it's Steven and Jackie!"  
  
Kitty couldn't help but hug them both. She's loved Steven like a second son. She hated seeing him and her biological son not really speaking to each other.  
  
"Tiffany?" Jackie turned around "Tiffany! Where are you?"  
  
"Right here, Mommy!"  
  
"Look at you, you're all dirty!" Tiffany crawled under the bushes in front of the Forman house to pick up an interesting looking rock.  
  
"I found a cool rock, Mommy!"  
  
Jackie rolled her eyes. "You need a bath."  
  
"Hey, Jackie-can we have this conversation inside?" Hyde suggested.  
  
"Oh, right. Sorry Mrs. Forman."  
  
"That's no problem. Would you like to use some of my lavender bubbles?"  
  
Kitty asked  
  
"No, I hate baths! Is Eric here yet?"  
  
"No, not yet, sweetie. Say 'hello' to Mr. Forman."  
  
"Hi, Mr. Forman!" Red had a soft spot for little girls. It was why he babied Laurie but drew the hardline with Eric when they were kids.  
  
"Hello. ---" He forgot the child's name  
  
"Tiffany Worthington, Sir. But Mommy says I'll be Tiffany Hyde soon!"  
  
"Well like it or not young lady, you're getting your face and hands washed because I said so." Jackie said with a smile on her face. She loved her daughter dearly, it was the dirt that she couldn't stand.  
  
Midway through the Forman drive  
  
Eric asked Donna if he could drive when they left Missouri because he was feeling restless and needed to be the one driving to occupy his mind.  
  
"How are you feeling, Eric?" Donna rested her hand on his knee.  
  
"Fine. I just want us to be married." He sighed. He didn't want to have his Mother make a fuss or to put up with any snide remarks from Hyde or his Dad. Eric just wanted to be with Donna. It was all he ever wanted.  
  
"I know. Me too. Now that it's going to be tomorrow, I just want all the hoopla over with." Donna smiled back at him.  
  
"And I promise I won't pick a fight with Hyde." Eric said while unconsciously tightening his grip on the steering wheel.  
  
"That's good to know, Eric." Donna said as she put her head back on the seat hoping to sneak in a little power nap.  
  
'Look at her sleeping, she's so beautiful-I love her so much' Eric thought as he drove getting closer to Point Place.  
6:20PM  
  
That went terrible. Eric thought as he went upstairs to wake up Tiffany as Jackie told him she made him a present. He and Hyde barely spoke two words to each other. 'Because I sold out?' Eric thought. What in the hell did that mean? Because he had a job that required him to wear a suit and tie? Jackie was giving Donna an all important beauty lecture for tomorrow. His Father fell asleep on the sofa after dinner while Hyde helped his Mom was dishes. Laurie wasn't here. Not that Eric cared. He didn't need his sister there. He was only sorry that he stole off her but she didn't accept his apologies nor his money for the bracelets so f*** her. Tiffany was sleeping in Laurie's room. She was so cute sleeping with one of Jackie's old unicorns. He really did want a child of his own, but he didn't blame Donna for anything that happened as to why she couldn't. It was just one of life's cruel practical jokes.  
  
"Hey," Eric whispered as she lightly shook her shoulder, "Wake up, Tiffany."  
  
She opened up her eyes with a snapping energy that he wished he still had.  
  
"E-ric!"  
  
"You missed dinner."  
  
"Your Mommy made me fish sticks!"  
  
"She did? And tater tots?"  
  
"No-curly fries."  
  
When she was fully awake he turned on the light. "That's better than what we had." How much meat, potatoes, and green vegetables can one person consume?  
  
"I made you a present." Tiffany jumped out of bed to get her drawing off Laurie's old desk.  
  
"You did? That's very nice of you."  
  
She handed him the drawing.  
  
"Do you like it, Eric?"  
  
"Yeah, it's very cool. Is this Donna?"  
  
"I had to use orange for her hair."  
  
Eric smiled. Tiffany drew Eric and Donna in what was supposed to be their wedding attire. Donna was wearing a blue dress because the paper that Tiffany drew on was white.  
  
"It's very nice. I love it, thank you." He kissed her on the cheek.  
  
"Turn it over."  
  
It was what was supposed to be Yoda. She used a darker green for the wise old master of the Star Wars universe, but it was still an adorable picture.  
  
"I think I better hang it up on this side or Donna will get mad at me." Eric replied in a child like way. Dealing with children was so much easier than dealing with adults.  
  
"There you are, Eric." Enter Donna  
  
"Hi, Donna!" Tiffany said  
  
"Hi, Tiffany. Cover your ears, your Mommy is a pain!"  
  
The little girl laughed.  
  
"You didn't like Jackie's make up suggestions?" Eric ribbed  
  
Donna sat next to him on the bed.  
  
"Contrary to belief, I do know how to put make up on."  
  
"Here this should make you feel better-look what Tiffany made me."  
  
"Yoda makes me feel better?"  
  
"Wrong side!" Tiffany quipped just like her Mother  
  
"Sorry. -Do these people look familiar?"  
  
"That's you and Eric!" Tiffany said to Donna  
  
"Thank you-it's very pretty we'll hang it on our fridge."  
  
"Donna! I've been looking for you; we still have to decide how you're going to wear your hair!"  
  
"Oh, brother." Donna wished she could jump out the window.  
  
Tiffany climbed on Eric's back, "Piggyback ride."  
  
"No ice cream," Jackie playfully warned, "Mrs. Forman made you a special snack."  
  
"Okay! Come on, Eric!"  
  
"Now let's see Donna-do you prefer a French braid or-----?"  
  
and that's all Eric heard as he gave Tiffany a piggyback ride down the stairs.  
  
Knowing something was going to happen or maybe it was all in his mind.  
  
"Steven!" Tiffany called from the middle of the stairs and Eric thought, 'F***'.  
  
He was waiting for her at the bottom and Eric hoped it wasn't for the reasons he thought. That he had to save his daughter from this 'evil' scrawny dorky Coke dependant business man who used to be his best friend. Then Eric thought he should be angry after all why should Hyde get off Scott free? He slept with Donna behind his back and got her pregnant. Her botched abortion the reason why she couldn't bear their child. Eric made sure he was low enough so Tiffany could ease off his back after all Hyde might freak and blame him if she bumped her hand on the railing.  
  
"Mrs. Forman made you a snack." Hyde said  
  
"Okay! Bye, Eric!"  
  
"Bye, sweetie." 'He can't look at me now? God, he's so juvenile.'  
  
Eric needed a simple walk around the block to clear his head.  
  
"Where are you going?" Red put down his paper and Eric thought 'What am I 17 again?'  
  
"For a walk."  
  
"This better not---"  
  
Eric came this close to saying the 'f' word to his Father, he wasn't afraid anymore.  
  
"How come my going for a walk (and they didn't know about the NYC relapse) automatically means I'm going to find the nearest pusher?" Eric whispered as he didn't want Tiffany to hear from the kitchen  
  
Before Red could answer-Eric emptied out his pockets on the table and took out all of his money, credit cards, and keys.  
  
"Now your only worry is what if they give it to me for free?" Kitty entered from the kitchen and heard the last of it.  
  
"Eric, honey, what's wrong?"  
  
"Ask YOUR husband. I didn't realize going for a walk was illegal."  
  
Eric couldn't wait to feel the fresh (well he debated how fresh it actually was) air on his face, the only thing that could have made the moment better is if Donna joined him.  
  
"Red?"  
  
"Kitty-how do we know he won't touch that stuff again?" Red did not want to talk about this; he went back to reading his paper as Kitty sighed before going upstairs to join Donna and Jackie hoping Eric was not going to do anything illegal. But leaving all of his money here was a good sign that he wasn't going to put anything up his nose.  
  
Wedding Day  
  
12:00AM Forman sofa  
  
"Eric, what are you doing down here?" Donna asked. After her beauty seminar with Jackie she took a hot bath and fell asleep waiting for Eric to return. She was worried when he wasn't in the bed next to her.  
  
"Hey, what time is it? You aren't supposed to see me until the wedding."  
  
Eric yawned.  
  
"It's our second wedding and it's just superstitious nonsense." Jackie made Hyde go back to the albeit newly furnished but it still was the basement.  
  
"I didn't feel like disturbing you."  
  
'What?' "What?"  
  
"Maybe we shouldn't get married."  
  
"Eric," Donna jumped up trying her best not to shout, "What the hell?" She didn't need to hear this; she had to pick up her Dad in six hours.  
  
"I love you too much to hurt you, Donna." Eric replied tiredly into the pillow.  
  
"Did you do any Coke?"  
  
"No, I didn't put anything up my nose." Eric forced himself up and went to the kitchen.  
  
Donna found two miniature vodka bottles in sticking out of the cushions. That's all Red and Kitty needed to see.  
  
'At least it wasn't Cocaine'.  
  
"Eric, where did you get these?" Donna put them on the kitchen table as Eric had his head down on the table.  
  
"A little girl scout on the corner was selling them."  
  
"Be serious."  
  
"You want serious, Donna? Everyone in this house thinks I'm still an addict, well you're always one, but that's not the point. Everyone thinks I'm a current user, so I bumped into one of geeks from the A-V club who still lives in Point Place with his Mother so he gave me the vodka. I only drank half of one bottle, does this make me a candidate for being a current user?"  
  
"Yeah, it does." Donna replied frustrated, putting her hands through her hair, of all days for him to do this they were going to get married in a few hours.  
  
"I'm not even drunk."  
  
"Eric, you want to do a line so bad you can feel it deep inside your soul, don't you? And don't think of lying to me."  
  
"I was thinking we should honeymoon in Colombia." Eric replied wryly.  
  
"That's not even funny." Donna grabbed the two vodka bottles off the table, she would dispose of them upstairs.  
  
"Aren't you worried about Red's liquor cabinet?"  
  
"No because if you touch a drop, we're not getting married. It's up to you, Eric." Donna wanted to kiss him, hold him, tell him everything would be okay, but today was their wedding day and she was pissed that he would almost relapse on this day, the official day of their second chance. How could he? All Donna could do was go upstairs and not say a word to anybody leaving Eric alone in the kitchen with his thoughts.  
  
How could he?  
  
7:30AM  
  
"Where's Donna?" Jackie asked Kitty who was happy making a big breakfast for everyone but Jackie warned that Steven couldn't see her until the wedding so he'd have to eat in the basement and Tiffany offered to keep him company.  
  
"She went to Chicago to pick up Bob."  
  
"Oh! Mrs. Forman-I forgot to pack my lucky lipstick."  
  
Kitty laughed as she buttered a stack of toast. "Your lucky lipstick?"  
  
"Yeah. There's a place in Chicago for people in the industry only. Steven will think I'm silly, but I cannot get married without my lucky lipstick."  
  
'Eric thinks you're silly' "Mom please tell me you have regular coffee, the kind with caffeine in it."  
  
"Oh, Eric, honey, you don't look so good."  
  
"I couldn't sleep last night."  
  
"It shows," Jackie interjected, "You need to put cucumber slices on your eyes."  
  
"I'll be sure to do that, thanks." There was a hardness about him that Jackie tried to dismiss as nerves.  
  
"I'll be back soon, maybe I'll bump into Donna. Bye!" Jackie gulped down a small glass of orange juice before she left.  
  
"Now that she's gone, son, is there something you'd like to tell me? Did you and Donna have a fight?"  
  
"Sort of. But it's nothing, really."  
  
"Mrs. Forman may I have more juice?" Tiffany came in with her cup  
  
"Sure you can, honey."  
  
"Hi, sweetie." Said Eric  
  
"Hi, Eric! Do you want to watch cartoons with Steven and me?"  
  
How could he break a little girls heart? He couldn't. Hyde would just have to deal.  
  
"Yeah." Eric took his coffee and a piece of toast and went with Tiffany to the basement.  
10:30AM  
  
"Donna, why do you look so glum? You're getting married today!"  
  
"I can do my own blush, thanks." Donna took the compact out of Jackie's hands. She loved Eric with all of her heart but today just didn't feel right to be married. Not if he was thinking about getting high. Not if he wanted to drone out the world. Not if he wanted to put those 'needs' in front of her.  
  
"What's wrong? Did you and Eric have a fight? Because he didn't look too good when I saw him earlier."  
  
"I can't do this." Donna wrapped a robe around her silk slip and went to find Eric.  
  
"Donna, no! Don't do what I think you're going to do!" Jackie chased after her.  
  
"Jackie," Donna turned around, "This is not your business."  
  
"You can't do this to Eric, he loves you."  
  
"I can't do this to Eric? Oh-if you---never mind." Donna went to Eric's old room where he was opening the garment bag that contained his tux.  
  
"Eric,"  
  
He saw the look in her eyes and stood up straight.  
  
"This is where you come in to tell me you cannot marry me," Donna closed the door, "Am I right? Because I wanted to get high so you punish me for my honesty. What was last night then? I didn't touch any more booze and you still- forget it. Don't you love me enough to marry me, Donna?"  
  
"That's not fair, Eric, you know that I love you. But it's not right for us to get married right now-can you guarantee me you won't run off in the middle of the night to go to the bar or on a Coke run? Can you guarantee me that?"  
  
"You know addicts can only promise for one day."  
  
"Now you're going to quote the literature? It's not right for us to get married now. I'm sorry, Eric. I'm not breaking up with you. I'm just saying let's postpone our wedding. Your mother still has Jackie and Hyde to fuss over." She wanted to hold his hands but he coldly retracted.  
  
"Seems to me," either out of confidence or defiance Eric couldn't decide which he re opened his garment bag and proceeded to get dressed anyway, "You forgot the part of the vows that go 'For Better or Worse'." He supposed he could've also used the sickness and health one too.  
  
Donna looked at him with intense eyes before walking out of the room, gently closing the door behind her.  
  
12PM  
  
Eric looked at himself in the mirror and saw his tired face. Maybe, Donna was right that this wasn't the right time for them to be married. He couldn't help when he got his urges to get high and he was glad that it was only vodka his old schoolmate had and that he had left his money at home. Still he knew deep inside if he really wanted to score Coke he could've easily got it he had a one hundred dollar watch on but he didn't do that. It had nothing to do with Hyde or his Father it was all him and his own decisions. Donna Pinciotti was the only person he loved one hundred per cent. He did want to get married but wondered if today was the best day to do it after all.  
  
"Eric!" Children made the best buffers and Eric was glad he didn't have to think for at least a moment.  
  
"Hi, Tiffany. You look very nice." Her dress was cotton candy purple and had a black velvet peter pan collar and small trailing bow in the back. She also had shiny black Mary Janes and tights that matched her dress. She didn't want to wear any ribbons but wore one of Laurie's old barrettes that Mrs. Forman found in her old heart shaped keepsake box.  
  
"You too, Eric."  
  
"Oh, your shoe is unbuckled." Eric bent down to fix it.  
  
"Mommy caught me drawing on the sidewalk with chalk."  
  
Eric laughed he could just picture Jackie freaking out over it.  
  
"She did?"  
  
"Tiffany, it's time to go." Eric was taken a back by Hyde's fitted gray and black tux. Every time he ever wore a suit it was always loose fitting and unkempt but he actually looked good and this was obviously Jackie's doing. Eric swallowed, he was going to say something but screw it. He just wanted to be with Donna he couldn't very much help it if the image also consisted of a 'zillion' grams of Coke and various liquors floating around his system.  
  
Of all the days to feel like this, it was at that moment that he realized he failed Donna, yet again.  
12PM (at the Church)  
  
Kitty knocked on the door and quietly opened it to find Donna sitting on a chair, dressed in a black slip style dress her garment bag hanging on the door. She requested that Jackie and Tiffany go in another waiting room because Donna couldn't bear to see Jackie in her beautiful Princess Diana-esque wedding dress talking happy wedding talk with her daughter. She didn't want to talk to her Father. She just wanted to be alone.  
  
"Donna, honey, what's wrong? What happened between you and Eric?" He wasn't talking either.  
  
Donna was torn she wanted to tell Mrs. Forman everything, but knowing how much it would crush her, she refrained.  
  
"I don't know if I can marry him today." Donna whispered.  
  
"What? Why?" Kitty asked out of concern.  
  
"He knows I love him." Donna had to rebuff the question.  
  
"You've always been important to Eric. You two have had your ups and downs growing up, but I always knew you two would be together forever. He's out there looking miserable, but at least he's out there-hoping. You don't have to tell me what you two fought about. I can only imagine and if you don't bring it up; I can still be in denial about it. But don't walk away from my son. How could it help your relationship to go back to St. Louis and share a bed knowing you two were supposed to get married today? Please, Donna, help my son, because you are the only one that can." Kitty felt her eyes water but didn't want to cry those kinds of tears. Not today.  
  
Donna got up and hugged Kitty, she too refusing to cry.  
  
"I do love him. I'll always love Eric." She held onto Kitty tight fearful that she might fall.  
12:45PM  
  
"Don't start tossing the flowers yet, you have to wait for the music to start." Jackie instructed to Tiffany who was getting anxious. There was no Father to give her away so she asked Mr. Forman if he would do the honors. Red might have been gruff but did have a soft spot on certain occasions and  
  
of course would walk Jackie down the aisle.  
  
"You look beautiful, Mommy."  
  
"So do you, sweetie." Even though Jackie wanted to do her daughter's hair in the requisite ribbons.  
  
12:50PM  
  
'Why won't he talk to me? F***ing idiot. If Donna leaves me at the altar- I'm going to do the biggest line of Coke ever, not coming up for air. And I will die.'  
  
'What's his problem? Maybe Donna will have come to her senses and not marry the dill hole.'  
  
1:00PM  
  
The organist played the Wedding March as the guests stood up in the modest sized church. Tiffany started out by tossing the flowers but wound up throwing them by the time she got to the end of the aisle. Hyde thought Jackie looked absolutely beautiful like a Queen of a faraway land.  
  
Eric smiled his first real smile of the day when he saw Bob walking Donna down the aisle. He caught his Mother crying out of the corner of his eye. He tried not to cry but she was just so beautiful wearing the dress she wore for their first wedding. She didn't alter it. It wasn't as flounced and puffy as Jackie's but that wasn't Donna's taste.  
  
'Thank you, God' Eric prayed, he couldn't say he wouldn't feel like getting high on something in five minutes but all he knew was that right now he was thankful that Donna was going to marry him. Him. Eric Forman.  
  
The Vows  
  
Donna held Eric's hands they were cold and hers were shaky. He looked so handsome in his tux, Donna felt the other people around her disappear and as she looked deeply into his eyes; it was as if they were the only ones in the room.  
  
"I had another set of vows prepared, but, I decided to just say what's on my mind right now. I love you, Eric Forman with all my heart and soul. We've known each other since we were little kids, we played together, went to school together, went to the amusement park together, and we grew up together-falling in and out and back into love again. Since then we've had our share of bad times but we've always come through them and I cannot imagine sharing my life with anyone else but you. I want to grow old with you. I love you more than anyone else in the whole world. You are the other half that connects to make the complete me."  
  
One tear fell down Eric's face he didn't have any vows prepared or otherwise, all he could say was, "I love you very much, Donna Pinciotti. Forever."  
  
He meant it. Donna was crying when Eric put the ring on her finger. She wasn't naïve and knew that many challenges lie ahead for them and that his problem was only part of it.  
  
"..and now you may kiss the bride."  
  
"My favorite part of the ceremony." Eric whispered to her before kissing her in front of his family and friends.  
  
Bliss.  
  
Return to Sender  
  
Steven Hyde was finally marrying Jackie Burkhart. This should have happened sooner but life got in the way, hers and his. Adolescence insecurities making way for young adult insecurities. Blink your eyes and twenty years go by. If it weren't for Jackie coming into Point Place to stick her nose in the Donna and Eric situation they wouldn't be here today. Not that it was easy. It was never easy for Hyde. Middle class spoiled brats like Forman had the world handed to them on a silver platter even if Red was stern, he wasn't abusive in the true sense of the word. It wasn't easy for Hyde to start a career in the music business. Everything was a struggle. He had to fight for everything he had. He should've been the Coke addict but then that would have been 'oh, so typical'. Yet here he was on this day about to marry the beautiful Jackie and to be a real Father to Tiffany and nothing her ex-husband could do legally would change that. Hyde was always ready to fight for another day. He was almost there, he could see the forest from the trees and only heard bits and pieces from the Priest. "Just cause..marriage.not take place..speak now..forever.hold.peace."  
  
Forman got to remarry Donna but Hyde wasn't surprised that the door swung open.not Bradley Worthington anyone but that high class snob. The crowd started whispering. Eric smiled on the inside but then felt guilty for doing so. Donna was surprised and thought Jackie and Hyde should have gotten married first. Because this was not good.  
  
"JACKIE, DON'T MARRY HYDE, I LOVE YOU!"  
  
"Michael?"  
  
"My Mommy's marrying Steven!" Tiffany started to cry. Eric held her hand so she wouldn't run off.  
  
"Michael?"  
  
"Jackie!" Hyde said wondering if this was all just one huge burn in the making for twenty odd years? No one ever knew what happened to Kelso and he suddenly shows up now on their wedding day?  
  
"Jackie, don't marry Hyde, I LOVE YOU!"  
  
Jackie looked at Hyde and then looked at Kelso, she hasn't seen him in decades and actually thought he might have been dead-but here he was contesting her marriage to Steven. Which despite it happening all around them it still was a romantic thing to do.  
  
Hyde was finally tired of all the bull****, he had no more rage in him. He took a deep breath and silently spoke to Jackie.  
  
"Jackie, do you want to be with Kelso? If so speak now or forever hold YOUR PEACE."  
  
Disappointment. 


	9. Reunited And It Feels So Bad

Chapter 9 Reunited (And It Feels So Bad)  
  
Jackie's POV (third person)  
  
Jackie couldn't believe her dream was finally coming true she was about to marry the love of her life Steven Hyde. Anti-Establishment guys like Hyde did not go for perky former cheerleader types who had drive an hour on her wedding day for a certain lipstick shade. She didn't hear a word the Priest said knowing that once they got over the "Just Cause" hill they were going to be Mr. and Mrs. Steven Hyde and Tiffany would have a real Father in her life. It was like a scene from a movie everyone did seem to really move in slow motion. The door swung open and there was her first real teenage sweetheart Michael Kelso. He was still very much man-pretty especially with his modern hairstyle and designer suit. Her heart was in her throat as she called his name. She was shocked seeing him there after all the years of hatred but with him contesting her marriage to Hyde he had to have been sorry for everything terrible he had ever done. Then Steven's face got all red and his eyes downcast and he said to her  
  
"Jackie, do you want to be with Kelso? If so speak now or forever hold YOUR PEACE."  
  
Her daughter was crying and hiding behind Eric.  
  
"Steven, Michael-I---Donna---"  
  
"If you need to talk to Donna about it then you don't want to marry me." Hyde shot back.  
  
Donna motioned for Eric to take Tiffany outside she didn't need to see or hear this. Which was fine by Eric he really could care less about Kelso proclaiming his ever-dying love to Jackie.  
  
Kitty went up to Hyde his eyes like glass.  
  
"You three should go somewhere private to talk about this." Kitty said  
  
"No, Mrs. Forman, if Jackie's first thought isn't to marry me then what is there to say?"  
  
He was waiting for Kelso to scream, "Burn!" But he didn't. That was a very long time ago when he didn't have problems like this and he only had to wonder why his parents were losers of society and why Forman had the better parents?  
  
"Steven, that's not true," Jackie started to cry  
  
"I agree. The three of you should sit down and talk about it." Donna said  
  
"Why don't you go off into the sunset with your star spangled powder addict of a husband?"  
  
"That was uncalled for." Donna replied, still holding her bouquet.  
  
"Okay, okay-this is enough-I want everyone involved to follow me now." Kitty instructed taking charge over the Priest.  
  
"Ssh," Eric held Tiffany who was crying he took her to the back of the building where they'd have their bazaars in the summer. "It's going to be okay."  
  
"Is Mommy and Steven getting married?" She asked  
  
"I don't know, sweetie. Do you want to go for a walk?" There was a diner on the corner that served good desserts.  
  
"I have to stay for pictures, Eric."  
  
"Did your Mommy bring extra clothes for you?"  
  
She nodded yes as he wiped away her tears with his hand.  
  
"Come on. You change and we'll go for a walk and then," He didn't want to lie to her, "Hopefully, you can get dressed up again for some pictures."  
  
"Okay, Eric."  
Kitty made sure to sit between Kelso and Hyde as they found a little office area they could use for their meeting. Jackie was too nervous to sit and stood in a corner looking at Donna for emotional support who sat down at the desk. She tried not let Hyde's remark bug her, she knew he was hurting but that was no reason to say what he did about Eric.  
  
Kitty nervously poured water into the paper cups that were on the table.  
  
"Let's talk about this calmly like rational adults."  
  
"He's not rational, Mrs. Forman-You don't love, Jackie. She's just a conquest to you."  
  
"You don't know what you're talking about, Hyde."  
  
"Donna---"  
  
"There you go again with the 'Donna'." Hyde replied frustrated  
  
"I think I'm going to be sick."  
  
Donna helped her to the bathroom that was adjacent to the office.  
  
"Now, Michael you cannot just come here and announce your love for Jackie without a reason as to why." Kitty said, holding Steven's hand.  
  
He needed the support and almost wished Mrs. Forman was thirty years younger, he'd marry her in a heartbeat, as she was the only woman to truly give a damn about him.  
Tiffany dressed herself in her pull on jeans over her tights with the blue, pink, and purple flower appliqués that Jackie thought made a cute touch, a black t-shirt with the same flower design, and her Mary Jane's. Eric held her hand as they walked.  
  
"Eric! Hey!" Said a familiar voice  
  
"Fez?"  
  
"Yes, Fez has come all the way back to Point Place with his friend Kelso to win back the lovely Jackie."  
  
"Mommy's marrying Steven!" Tiffany huffed  
  
"Who is this?"  
  
"Jackie's daughter, Tiffany."  
  
"Oh-and where are you two off to?"  
  
"Just for a walk."  
  
Just then Eric heard the faint shrill of a voice running towards them becoming louder by the minute.  
  
"Ay-no."  
  
"Uncle Fez don't leave without me." She was seven years old and looked like a female version of Kelso.  
  
"This is Jackie Kelso."  
  
Tiffany processed the name in her brain. "Jackie's my Mommy's name!"  
  
"My Dad came all the way here from Buffalo to marry Jackie!"  
  
Tiffany started to cry again. "No! Steven's marrying Mommy! Eric."  
  
Eric picked Tiffany up.  
  
"Dad says Hyde is a loser. We're rich. Dad's made a fortune in home improvements." She stretched out her words to show she was smarter than the rest.  
  
Eric mentally rolled his eyes, "Fez---"  
  
"I know. Come on, Jackie. Let's play hide and seek again-and this time you have to find your Uncle Fez."  
  
"I'm only giving you to the count of five," She turned around to face the big Oak tree, "Because you're bigger and don't need the ten."  
  
"I don't like her." Tiffany whispered when they got across the street.  
  
"I know. She's not as nice as you." Eric said hoping he could make her feel the tiniest speck better.  
  
Hyde crushed his paper cup as if it were Kelso's head. Jackie and Donna were still in the bathroom talking about the situation. Whose heart did Jackie belong to? If she had to talk about it then that meant she had reservations and Steven Hyde didn't want to be somebody's leftovers. If only he could be a fly on that wall.  
  
"Do you feel better?" Donna asked  
  
"I didn't puke all over my gown did I?" Jackie asked, examining herself in the mirror  
  
"No."  
  
"I don't know what to do, Donna. I love Steven you have to know that. And I always thought I hated Michael-but for him to come here and object to this wedding-doesn't that tell you he's changed?"  
  
"Uh-no. Jackie, I hate to break your fantasy thoughts, but you have to ask yourself why did Kelso come back? Why now on your wedding day?  
  
I'm not saying he doesn't love you, maybe he really does, and who am I to judge? I'm just saying you have to figure out why he's here objecting to you and Hyde getting married." Donna looked at her ring. It didn't seem fair for her to be married to Eric today and Jackie not married at all.  
  
"I don't want to go back out there-"  
  
"Jackie, you have to."  
  
"No, Donna, I'm going to be sick again."  
  
This was shaping up to be a glorious day Donna thought.  
Tiffany scraped the small sundae cup with her spoon moving the ice cream but not eating it. Eric just drank a soda. He thought maybe if he took her out to the diner she'd eat something.  
  
"I'm not hungry." Tiffany said  
  
"It's okay," Eric unwrapped his napkin trinity and took out his spoon, "Let's see if I can help you with this."  
  
"I want to see Mommy!"  
  
"Sure, sweetie."  
  
"I have to use the bathroom." She whispered like Jackie taught her.  
  
"Don't talk to strangers." He said for no reason. He was sure Jackie told her that by now.  
  
"I know that!"  
  
Eric realized from the time Kelso interrupted the ceremony to now he didn't have the urge to get high at all. That wasn't to say he wasn't going to feel something gnaw at him later on but right now the only thing that mattered was making sure Tiffany was going to be all right. He did feel out of place in the diner as he was the only one here wearing a tux. Which got quite a few looks and giggles from the patrons.  
  
Tiffany came back her hands all wet because she couldn't reach the automatic dryer. Eric handed her a napkin.  
  
"Let's go see your Mommy."  
  
"Thanks for the ice cream, Eric." Even though she didn't eat it, she was raised to say her 'please's and 'thank you's'.  
  
"You're welcome." Eric wished she was his daughter. He wanted a child in the worst way but he didn't want to dwell on that topic for fear of the Bolivian marching powder coming back into his life. He had to stay sober for Donna.  
"You bastard!" Hyde stood up half wanting to punch Kelso the other half tired of having to solve his problems in that way.  
  
Jackie and Donna came back in the room to hear that remark.  
  
"I don't feel good------"  
  
"Oh, Jackie," Mrs. Forman stood up and felt her head, "You're burning up. Let's get you in bed."  
  
"But-but-"  
  
"No buts."  
  
"My wedding day is ruined." She cried  
  
Before Hyde could reply to that logic Eric came in with Tiffany.  
  
"Mommy!"  
  
"My baby," She picked her up and despite being sick kissed her on the cheek,  
  
"I missed you."  
  
"You're hot!"  
  
"I know, I'm sick."  
  
"I'm going to tell Red to bring the car out front, we'll put you in a warm bed Jackie."  
  
Hyde didn't go near Jackie he just stayed in his spot.  
  
"Dad, Uncle Fez won't give me twenty dollars!"  
  
'So this was the brat' Hyde thought  
  
"I gave her money yesterday and she wasted it on candy." Fez came in trailing behind  
  
"You own a candy company, man," Hyde needed to change the subject, "You could've given her the candy for free."  
  
"And eat into the profits? You son of a bitch." It was good to have Fez back.  
  
"He said a bad word." Tiffany said  
  
"Donna, will you and Eric-oh your honeymoon---"  
  
"It's okay, we'll watch Tiffany." Donna said  
  
'No honeymoon?' Eric thought  
  
"That was bull****." Hyde replied  
  
"Here, Jackie," Jackie turned around and realized Kelso was talking to his daughter. "Don't waste it this time."  
  
"Thanks, Dad, you're the best!" She hugged him tight and pulled on Fez' arm so he could take her to the mall.  
  
Jackie started to sneeze, Donna handed her a box of tissues that was on the bookshelf.  
  
Hyde got up he needed to get out of here the awkwardness of the situation starting to get to him.  
  
"I'm going."  
  
"Steven," Jackie sneezed again, "Where are you going?"  
  
"Like you care." He replied hurt not looking at anyone in the room and instead just focusing on the door that led him to a false pretense of freedom.  
Eric took of his tie as Donna and his Mother were helping Jackie get out of her wedding ensemble and into her pajamas. He looked at his finger and was grateful that he at least got to marry Donna today. Although like Tiffany he felt terrible being gypped out of his wedding pictures. Kitty did take a few pictures during the ceremony but there were no after ceremony pictures and that was a let down. He wondered if anyone videotaped it? Imagine having someone object to your marriage on videotape. He threw his jacket on the bed not caring if it got wrinkled when the door opened and Hyde stumbled in drunk.  
  
"H-ey Forman, you got any powder on you?" Hyde almost tripped over his own feet and landed on the bed.  
  
'Yeah, I carry it on my person just for the hell of it' Eric thought. Even though Hyde was drunk that was a stupid question to ask.  
  
Hyde's last stuttering words were something along the lines of "You got to marry Donna, you bastard." before passing out.  
  
"What happened in here?" Donna asked, wanting to change into more comfortable clothes herself.  
  
"Hyde came in here drunk and said I was a bastard for marrying you." Eric threw his cummerbund on the floor next to his tie.  
  
Eric kissed her, he was sick of the whole day being about Jackie's interrupted wedding there was another couple that day who did happen to get married.  
  
"I love you, Donna."  
  
"I love---cake."  
  
"Oh, we're going to play do you remember, now?" Eric said. Donna never forgot a thing. "and yes, I do remember saying that-here's a newsflash Donna," Eric did his over excited hand and face gestures which made her laugh, "I was a kid. Kids do stupid things! Who'd have known that?"  
  
"You're so cute, when you get all wound up and twitchy." She put her arms around him.  
  
"I'm glad someone thinks so."  
  
They kissed each other as they fell on the floor.  
  
"What about Hyde?" Donna asked  
  
"He's drunk and passed out, who cares?"  
  
"But the door isn't locked!" Donna started to unbutton his shirt despite her concern for being caught at any minute.  
  
"So? I love you and cake so there." Eric stuck out his tongue at her as their honeymoon was spent in his old childhood bedroom, on the floor with no blankets, pillows, or candles, the house filled with people and with his former best friend passed out drunk on his bed. Oh happy days.  
Kitty was pacing, a little slower than she used to but pacing just the same, she couldn't believe what Michael Kelso had done and that boy had done some strange things over the years but showing up at her house without pants on or having sex with her s*** of a daughter was hardly the same as what he told them today. Red, of course, was not listening. He took his suit off, dressed in normal clothes and plopped himself down to watch television as if nothing happened. Kitty was the one who had to tell everyone to go to the reception hall as it was all paid for. If Michael wanted Jackie because deep in his mind he needed a mother figure for his unruly child that was no reason to interrupt that beautiful wedding ceremony over. Kitty stopped her pacing and trying to get a response out of Red and went to the kitchen to get another bowl of chicken noodle soup into Jackie who barely touched the first one. Kitty put the soup on the tray along with a glass of orange juice for later and some new over the counter cough and stuffy head medicine. She didn't know where Steven was but could've sworn she saw him enter the house. She wanted those two to be married almost a little bit more than, and God forbid her for thinking it, Eric and Donna.  
  
"Mommy's sleeping." Tiffany whispered  
  
Kitty put the tray down on the side table. "You shouldn't be in here, Tiffany, you'll get what your Mommy has."  
  
"I don't care."  
  
"Would you like some soup and crackers?"  
  
"I guess." She was kind of hungry now that more time had passed.  
  
"Okay, Let's go downstairs."  
  
"Yes, Mrs. Forman. Where's Eric?" Tiffany asked  
  
"Sleeping." She knew that was a lie.  
  
"I bet Eric and Donna played kissyface!" Tiffany said in the perfect children's innocence.  
  
"Would you like a grilled cheese with your soup?"  
  
"Half, please." That's what her Mother did when they went out for lunch together.  
  
Kitty took the bowl off the tray as her and Tiffany headed downstairs.  
Next Day  
  
Eric woke up early to find Kelso in the kitchen pouring himself a cup of coffee.  
  
"What are you doing here, man? If Hyde sees you here-"  
  
"I wanted a free breakfast."  
  
Eric poured himself a cup as he continued, "Um, you do know your daughter thinks you're rich doing home improvements?"  
  
"Can't I still have a free breakfast? Your Mom makes the best scrambled eggs."  
  
'Oh brother'  
  
"I don't care." Eric replied as Kelso went upstairs to use the bathroom and was annoyed that he left his jacket on the floor for anyone to trip over  
  
'Merry Christmas, Eric'! He heard someone coming down the stairs and quickly put his find in his back pocket.  
  
"Good morning, Son." Kitty kissed him on the cheek  
  
"Morning, Mom. You do know Kelso's here? He wants breakfast. He's a moron." Eric replied as if he were 16 and not 40. And who'd have thought  
  
Kelso would dabble in---  
  
"Eric," Kitty waved her hand in front of his face causing him to jump to the ceiling, "What are you thinking about?"  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"What you would like for breakfast?"  
  
"Nothing. I had coffee. Listen if Donna gets up early tell her I went to get a newspaper."  
  
"We get the newspaper."  
  
"The Point Place Gazette is not a real newspaper, Mom." Eric replied, giving his Mother a quick peck on the cheek before heading out the door. She wondered where he was off to so early in the morning?  
Hyde opened up his eyes. He felt like crap today. His head felt like it was going to pop off his shoulders and roll down the stairs. There was a knock on the door and he realized he passed out in Forman's old room. He quietly said "Come in" it was probably Mrs. Forman with something for his head.  
  
"Hi, Steven."  
  
"Hi, Tiffany." Did she come in here on her own or did Jackie make her do it?  
  
"How are you? Donna told Mrs. Forman that you are sick, are you sick like Mommy?"  
  
Hyde didn't realize that Jackie really had a bug.  
  
"Jackie's sick?"  
  
"Yeah, she's got a fever!"  
  
Hyde tried to get out of bed but the throbbing pain in his head made it impossible.  
  
"Can you see if your Mommy wants to come visit me?" Hyde asked  
  
"Okay! Mommy's putting her make up on." Leave it to Jackie to put on her cosmetics while having the flu.  
"---And thank you, Kelso." Eric whispered to himself as he closed the car door, folding the Chicago Tribune and placing it under his arm.  
  
"Where did you run off to?" Donna appeared out of nowhere and scared him.  
  
"You know between you and my Mother scaring me, I'm going to have a heart attack." Eric said, noting the irony in his mind.  
  
"Hardly." Donna kissed him on the lips.  
  
"Didn't you see my Mom this morning? I went to get a real newspaper."  
  
"I have something to tell you-Kelso's a slob he leaves everything, everywhere."  
  
'Uh-oh'.  
  
"Listen, Donna, I---"  
  
She interrupted him, "Sorry, Eric, me first. I couldn't help but notice the address label on an envelope he had by his side during breakfast-it comes from one of Jackie's ex-husbands conglomerates.Somehow, someway Michael 'the dim-wit' Kelso knows upper crust business moron Brad Worthington. I think there's a connection. And I'm going to tell Jackie about it before she does anything stupid," Donna started to laugh, "Sorry, I didn't let you get a word in edgewise. What were you going to say, Eric?"  
  
"Nothing," he put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her, "I love you."  
  
"Aww," she kissed the tip of his nose, "You're sweet. I love you, too. I promise when this mess settles we'll have a real honeymoon."  
  
"That'd be nice, you talk to Jackie, I'm going to make sure Kelso is out of here before Hyde comes downstairs, the last thing this house needs is another fight."  
  
They walked inside together. He hated having to tell her half-truths but he'd be extra careful this time. Eric just had to find the correct balance.  
Jackie was crying in between her sneezes when Donna came in.  
  
"Oh my God, what happened?" Donna came in the room with the glass of orange juice Mrs. Forman made her take upstairs.  
  
"Mommy and Steven had a fight." Tiffany said from under the covers.  
  
"Tiffany, why don't you go look for Eric? I'm sure he'll play with you." Donna didn't want to say what she had to say with the little girl present. Although she already did know her biological Father was a bad person.  
  
"Okay, get better, Mommy!" She kissed Jackie on the cheek.  
  
"Be good, sweetie." Donna waited for Tiffany to have completed the short run down the stairs and closed the door.  
  
"Kelso knows Brad."  
  
Jackie laughed, "Whose Brad? My ex-husband? No way!"  
  
"I saw the address on a letter Kelso had on the table earlier."  
  
"Brad owns and has holdings in many corporations. Are you sure it wasn't a billing statement?"  
  
"Jackie, don't be naïve." Donna sighed. Today was going to be another long day.  
Eric thought he was going to have to fight tooth and nail to get Kelso out of the house but he said he had to go back to his hotel anyway to see his daughter and to hang around with Fez in the pool area. He also didn't think Kelso would agree to his other request.  
  
"Oh-you took it!"  
  
"I wish I knew your whereabouts in the mid '80s." Eric joked  
  
"Come by later. I'm staying at the Holiday Inn in Kenosha. Room 302."  
  
Eric found it strange that Kelso did not mention Jackie during this whole conversation nor when he snuck in the house for breakfast earlier did he even ask about her or run upstairs to see her. She would be better off with Hyde, Eric reasoned but he wasn't God and couldn't make those things happen.  
  
"Later." Kelso waved from his rental sedan. This was definitely not his Thunderbird.  
  
Eric went back inside the house to rejoin Donna. This sucked. They never should have had a double wedding with Hyde and Jackie. He could feel his whole body tense up and all he could do now was take a deep breath and count the hours.  
  
Four hours later:  
  
Eric couldn't believe it-After driving her Dad back to Chicago, Donna was summoned by Jackie again, His Father was talking (yeah, right, since when did Red Forman talk on purpose about feelings?) to Hyde, and Kitty had to go to the grocery store and some other errands that would bore a child so Eric had to take Tiffany with him when he went visit Kelso. It's not that he didn't love the child but this was no place for her to be not for the reason he was going. She also didn't like Kelso's loud daughter. 'Just be careful, Eric-and it'll all be fine.' He thought.  
"You were right, Donna!" Jackie sprang up from the bed cold or no cold and put on her robe.  
  
"What happened?" Donna sat on the edge of the bed.  
  
"I made some phone calls and Brad does know Michael. His secretary told me Michael made some bad investments and when Brad realized who Michael Kelso was-" Jackie started to cry, "He might still love me, Donna, but to interrupt this wedding was all Brad's idea. I f***ing hate him."  
  
"I'm so sorry." Donna replied.  
  
"I'm sorry Michael lost his wife to cancer but I'm not going to replace his dead wife-and if he came all this way looking for that to happen, well, it's not going to."  
  
"Finally, you're speaking sense."  
  
"Where's Steven?"  
  
"Downstairs with Mr. Forman."  
  
"Get him, Donna. I want to change into some clothes."  
  
"I'm glad. You two went through so much to get back together, if you didn't make it-I was going to be very upset." Donna said.  
  
"So was I." Jackie whispered as she tried to figure out what she was going to wear.  
"I don't want to play with you!" Tiffany pushed Jackie Kelso she might have been younger and smaller but she was full of might like her Mother.  
  
"Fine. I'm just going to tell my Dad." Jackie ran the other way.  
  
"Eric," Tiffany whined, "I want to go home." She opened the door to the adjoining room that belonged to Fez and saw Eric do something she didn't quite understand.  
  
"Eric?"  
  
'Oh, sh**.' "Tiffany," Eric's palm hit the mirror and blood started to ooze out. "Can you get me a washcloth in the bathroom?" 'F***'.  
  
Tiffany came back with a washcloth and some band-aids that she saw lying on the counter.  
  
"Thanks. I'm okay, sweetie," 'F***' "This is important, Tiffany. You can't tell anyone what you saw. They'll all get angry at me." 'I'm a dick for putting this on a child's shoulders'.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because they don't understand, I need to---This makes me feel better. You want to help me put the band aids on?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Remember this is our little secret."  
  
She nodded. Those words would come back to haunt Eric Forman later.  
Hyde sat on Laurie's old bed waiting for Jackie to come out of the bathroom. How long did it take her to get dressed?  
  
"Jackie," Hyde called out "How long does it take you to get dressed?" He knew she was still a bit under the weather but he actually saw her once take ten minutes to decide on a sweater.  
  
"I'm almost ready, Steven." She spritzed on her namesake perfume. She put on a simple light blue sweater and a khaki colored skirt.  
  
"You look nice." He said  
  
She ran to him and put her arms around him, "I'm so sorry about yesterday. I never wanted to go back to Michael. I was just shocked that he showed up. I'm sure you know that was all Brad's doing and playing on Michael's insecurities over his dead wife and I'll deal with the both of them later. But I do want to marry you, Steven. I love you so much." She rushed her words so she could kiss him passionately even though she still wasn't over her cold.  
  
"I love you, too, Jackie-We pretty much have the house to ourselves so if we can't have the wedding yet, let's just skip to the honeymoon. Wedding's are conspiracies by the government anyway to change your tax bracket."  
  
"Oh, we're SO getting married, Steven!"  
  
He smiled to show he was only joking, "You're cute when you're feisty." He carried her to the bed and they made love the whole afternoon.  
Supper time  
  
"Eric should be back by now." said Donna trying to eat her salad. It was only herself and the Forman's at the dinner table as Jackie and Hyde were busy occupying themselves upstairs.  
  
"Forty years old and still quite the dumbass." Red quipped, couldn't he pick up a telephone?  
  
"Red, that's enough." Kitty replied putting more mashed potatoes on Donna's plate wondering about Eric's tardiness herself.  
Kelso and Fez took Jackie-Eric thought of calling her Jackie Jr. so there'd be no confusion. Then he realized that was a very high thought to have. Tiffany wanted to go back home an hour and a half ago and she fell asleep on the big bed watching TV as Eric sat on the chair making sure he was fully down before getting in a car with a child. He'd have felt even more awful if they got into an accident. Who would have thought that Kelso would dabble in the fresh fallen snow? He was recreational like all the others but Eric realized in the part of his brain that thought of Donna and responsibility that he had to be recreational too if he didn't want to lose her, his job, or spending time with Tiffany. He felt so terrible that she caught him doing a line. He didn't want to put that weight on her little shoulders and hoped to God that he didn't take away her innocence in one fell swoop.  
  
"Eric," Tiffany rubbed her eyes, "Can we go home now?" She was quite cranky.  
  
He looked at himself in the mirror. His eyes were normal, he didn't look like he touched any drugs. He had to work on his demeanor or Donna (or his Mother) could figure it out in heartbeat.  
  
"Yes, we can go now. I'm sorry we couldn't leave sooner, but I didn't feel well."  
  
"Are you better, Eric?"  
  
He sighed knowing that he had to lie because children didn't need to know the harsh cold true facts of life.  
  
"Yeah. I just had a stomach ache. Let's go home, it's dinner time 'actually past it, dill hole' I bet you're starving."  
  
"Your Mommy cooks good!"  
  
"Yeah, she does," Eric tried to smile, "Do you want a soda from the vending machine?"  
  
"No, thank you."  
  
Eric felt terrible but not terrible enough to throw away his begotten stash.  
  
"Donna, where in the hell is your husband?" Hyde said from the Forman kitchen in a rather rude way as Donna turned off her cell phone there were no messages from Eric.  
  
"I don't like what you're implying." Donna did not want to fight with Hyde which was why she let it rest about him visiting Eric just and buying Cocaine just for him to dispose of it.  
  
The backdoor opened and Tiffany ran to Hyde.  
  
"Hi, Steven!"  
  
"Hi---"  
  
Jackie came in at the sound of her daughter's voice.  
  
"There you are, sweetie," Jackie turned the microwave to heat up Tiffany's plate, "Your dinner will be ready soon."  
  
Eric came in and hoped it wasn't written all over his face. "Hi, Donna." He kissed her on the cheek, "Sorry, Jackie that Tiffany and I are so late."  
  
"We watched cartoons." Tiffany said sitting down not realizing she was covering for Eric.  
  
"That's fine." Jackie said, she trusted Eric with Tiffany.  
  
Eric went to the fridge because he knew Donna wasn't going to make him a plate. He was surprised his Mother didn't leave him one. He took out a soda and a loaf of bread.  
  
"Eric, what happened to your hand?" Donna noticed  
  
'Be cool, Eric' "By an angry wire hanger. Maybe, Joan Crawford was right about them?" He joked to try and deflect from the situation. Tiffany squirmed in her chair, Eric lied to Donna.  
  
Hyde whispered something to Jackie and after he kissed Tiffany on the head he seemed to have sprinted out of the kitchen.  
  
"We all know what that was about." Eric said the picture of calmness as he took a butter knife out of the drawer.  
  
Jackie chose not to reply as she got the milk out of the refrigerator and poured Tiffany a cup as the microwave went off.  
  
"Now you finish your dinner and I'll fix you a bubble bath." Jackie said to Tiffany, Eric wished Donna had said that to him.  
  
"You want to watch TV?" Donna asked Eric. This was some honeymoon!  
  
Eric grabbed his plate and soda can, "Sure."  
  
Jackie watched Tiffany take small bites of her food and thought maybe she was coming down with her cold.  
  
"Are you okay, honey?"  
  
"Yeah, Mommy."  
  
'I'm a prick' Eric thought before going into the living room with Donna.  
Through Donna's Eyes  
  
12AM  
  
Donna woke up at midnight when she realized Eric was not in the bed next to her. She didn't want to admit it but that whole pre-wedding episode bothered her with the vodka, he wasn't drunk and they were miniature bottles but it was the principal involved. Today he acted very strange, he didn't look high, he didn't look like the zoned out monster that was behind the Club Sapphire when she found him last year and he was so strung out that he was beating up a homeless man for five dollars and he punched her in the eye. Maybe, it was all in her mind. Eric never could handle stress well. He reached his breaking point when they finally divorced after he thought they were getting back together from their separation. Donna felt terrible about that. She put on his robe because it made her feel comfortable and it smelled of his cologne. If he went out on a Coke run she didn't know what she was going to do. She loved him for so long and she never wanted to be without him. She opened the bedroom door and heard a noise from downstairs. She walked quietly and the first thing she saw was a children's book on the end table. Eric was rocking a sleeping Tiffany in the rocking chair that Hyde bought for Kitty a few years ago for Christmas. He  
  
was crying. Softly. Not the happy, grateful tears of their wedding but sorrowful tears like when someone that you love very much dies.  
  
"I'm sorry that I scared you, Tiffany," Donna couldn't breathe, she felt as if she was being frozen on the spot. "I didn't mean it."  
  
Donna heard steps from behind her, so she quietly moved to the side room. It was Hyde. 'Great' Donna thought.  
  
"Damn it, Forman. You seem to think you are Tiffany's Father."  
  
"I-" Hyde ignored the tears that flowed down Eric's face.  
  
Hyde took Tiffany out of Eric's arms, "You are pathetic, man."  
  
"Shut up," Eric hoped Hyde couldn't see his tears in the glow of the nightlights that Kitty had strategically placed, "Tiffany came downstairs and wanted me to read her a bedtime story. Maybe you are just jealous that  
  
she came to me and not you?" Eric whispered sharply.  
  
"F*** you, man." Hyde didn't even wait for Eric to reply he just took Tiffany upstairs with him, who was sleeping like a log and didn't know any of this was taking place.  
  
When Hyde was gone Eric took out his old friend, Donna was too paralyzed to do anything, she never saw him actually do the act. Her eyes watered when she saw Eric do a line. She forced herself to quietly go upstairs while his back was still turned. That's why Eric and Tiffany were late coming back, he got Cocaine from Kelso (?). He was high and didn't want to drive with Tiffany in the car with him and he waited for himself to come down. That's all she could figure out at the moment. When Donna got under the covers of Eric's old bed, she cried, until she heard him come in the room fifteen minutes later. He put his arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. She pretended to be asleep.  
  
"I love you, Donna." 'Till death do us part'  
  
'I love you, too, Eric, for better or worse, in sickness and in health'. She silently replied.  
  
Next day:  
  
Jackie looked at Hyde sleeping he was so beautiful and content the burdens of his life lifted off his shoulders during slumber. She couldn't imagine a life without him. They'd get married soon she was sure of it but she had to deal with Michael Kelso today. Tiffany was up early and Jackie got her dressed and sent her downstairs to Kitty and Red for breakfast. Jackie didn't want to look too good for Kelso, but screw it she was beautiful and would look amazing in a paper sack and tangled hair. She wrapped her powder blue floral print scarf around her neck and walked over to Hyde.  
  
"I love you, Steven." She lightly kissed him on the cheek.  
  
She took her train case containing her important cosmetics into the bathroom, the door was locked, and Jackie wasn't used to waiting for a bathroom.  
  
"Donna, how much make up do you need? You go for that Earthy lumberjack look."  
  
The door opened, "It's not Donna, it's me."  
  
"Hi, Eric. Good morning." He didn't look very happy and he was remarried to Donna, he should be doing cartwheels.  
  
"Hi," he replied quietly, "Tell Donna, I'm going back to bed."  
  
Jackie wondered what was up with Eric's mood? She hoped it had nothing to do with Steven. It was like one Hatfield fighting with one McCoy. She twisted her face at the Southern reference. Jackie wasn't a racist person she just disliked stupid inbred hillbillies who always seem to come from "Down  
  
South." Jackie was about to go in the bathroom when she saw Donna come up with two cups of tea.  
  
"Hi, Donna, I ran into Eric he told me to tell you he's going back to bed."  
  
"The hell he is."  
  
"What's wrong? You two just got married! You two are the most neurotic couple that I know of. And how come you aren't on your honeymoon? You shouldn't not have a honeymoon just because Steven and I didn't get married."  
  
"Jackie," Donna didn't want to start a fight with her she meant well, but Donna was in no mood to hear it, "Please." Donna went to Eric's old room and thought for the first time-there was no reason for them not to not be on their honeymoon now-the crisis of Jackie, Hyde, and Kelso was over. Why not go on with their honeymoon as planned? The worst of the interrupted wedding was over. They didn't need to be here. It would also do Eric a world of good.  
Closure  
  
Jackie swirled her spoon around her coffee cup. She didn't have to do this, but she figured both her and Michael did stupid things over the years and she was only thinking of after adolescence. She told Steven last night in bed that she was going to do this and she was waiting for his protest but he only replied, "That's fine." Because he was confident that Jackie was not going to dump him for Kelso.  
  
"Hi, Jackie."  
  
"Michael."  
  
"You look pretty."  
  
She smirked even though it was true. "Thanks. I just want you to know Michael that I didn't have to come here to talk to you, but I wanted to. I'm not dumping Steven for you or to replace your wife. So, if that's what you think this talk is about, I might as well leave now."  
  
"I realize that." He softly whispered making him seem for the first time actually grown up. Jackie pushed her coffee cup away, she couldn't drink anymore.  
  
"I'm sorry that your wife died, what was her name?" Jackie asked  
  
"Leigh."  
  
"You only have one daughter?"  
  
"Jackie."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"No, that's her name."  
  
Michael made sure his daughter was named after her? She wanted to ask how did he manage that but she refrained. He turned out okay she supposed and was still getting by on his looks and freebees.  
  
"Um, I hate to cut this short, but I really have to---"  
  
"Get back to Hyde?"  
  
Jackie stood up, "As a matter of fact yes, Michael. And my daughter, too." She didn't know whether to kiss him on the cheek or hug him. She settled for neither. She quietly said goodbye as she left him speechless at the table. If he knew how he was going to feel about her later on in life he never would have been such a teenage jerk all those years ago.  
"Eric!" Donna whipped the covers off his body and watched him grunt and crawl in the fetal position.  
  
"No, you're getting up."  
  
"Donna---" 'I need to get high'  
  
She handed him a cup of tea, "I was thinking about it, Eric and since the worst of Jackie's interrupted wedding is over, we can go on our honeymoon after all."  
  
"I really don't feel like it, Donna. I say we just go back to St. Louis. If that's okay with you." He didn't look at her. He couldn't.  
  
"Eric, I saw you last night."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I saw you do a line last night." She wouldn't bring up what Tiffany had walked in on. He felt enough guilt over that she was sure. She put her tea cup on the dresser and crawled back in the bed next to him.  
  
"I'm not going to deny it. Yes, I did." He put his head down.  
  
Donna put her arms around him, "I love you, Eric. Stewing in bed all day is not going to help you, and you know it. I'm going to trust that you'll dispose of the rest all by yourself."  
  
He kissed her on the lips, "I think I will get dressed. And to tell Mom we're leaving for our honeymoon." He faked the joy in his voice. Yeah, he'd dispose of the Coke all by himself-straight up his nose. He hated himself for it, but such was life. 'That's what Donna gets for marrying an addict' he thought.  
"Red, it's in the paper!" Kitty went in the living room with the mornings newspaper for her husband to see  
  
Classifieds-Houses For Sale*  
  
Nice House To Raise A Family In  
  
Modest split level family home in a quiet neighborhood. 3 beds, 2 baths, large eat-in kitchen, dining room, spacious family/living room. Large finished basement, 2-car garage, and basketball net in the driveway perfect for kids. Asking price-40K  
  
[*SpaceyJ helped create this ad.] 


	10. Jackie's Choice

Chapter 10 Jackie's Choice  
  
New York City August 2000  
  
Jackie stormed into her ex-husbands office, as he seemed to smile with a sinister look on his face knowing that'd she'd be here in a huff over her interrupted wedding to that low-life Steven Hyde.  
  
"I knew you'd be here, Jackie."  
  
"Shut the hell up, Brad-how dare you use Michael just to stop my wedding to Steven? You son of a bitch!"  
  
He went around his desk to look her over-tiny but sexy. She was a good f***. "You don't have to resort to name calling, do you?"  
  
"You are not stopping Steven and I from getting married, we love each other and there's nothing you can do about it, we're divorced, remember?"  
  
"I know I can't stop the wedding but there's one thing I can stop-why don't you sit down on the sofa there and think about it?"  
  
"Don't condescend to me. Okay, you hate Steven, fine. But what about your daughter don't you love her? Why would you deny her having a good Father? Because it certainly isn't you."  
  
"And it's Steven Hyde? Please, Jackie. No one in their right mind would let that man near a child."  
  
Jackie slapped Brad across the face, "I hate you so much. Steven is a good man and I know that you have a price."  
  
"Everyone does, even you."  
  
"What is that supposed to mean?"  
  
"It means that I have all the cards and you don't have a single one to put on the table."  
  
"My lawyer---"  
  
"My attorney can mop the floor with your attorney. There is one thing I might consider."  
  
Jackie bit her lip. "No."  
  
"I'll drag this out in court for years to come-Tiffany will be grown up and won't need to quote you a 'good Father'. And not only do I have the ability to get criminal charges dropped for my friends and me, I can also make other people's charges reappear. So think about it, Jackie. No strings."  
  
She tried not to cry, but she knew that he was serious.  
  
"I'm not married to Steven yet."  
  
"We can arrange something for after."  
  
"You are a bastard."  
  
"So you keep telling me."  
  
"I need to think about this." She wanted Steven and her daughter to be happy.  
  
"Hey, honey, I'm not forcing you to. If you choose to it's all consensual."  
  
Everyone has a price.  
  
Hyde strummed his guitar in the living room. He and Jackie hardly ever went to their country hideaway in Pennsylvania. He wanted to take Tiffany there so she could really run around and get dirty like all kids should. She was putting together a 10-piece jigsaw puzzle that her dill hole buddy got her. He looked at the Grandfather clock and wondered why was Jackie so late?  
  
She didn't have work today, she only said she needed to run some errands.  
  
"I'm home," Jackie tried to sound like her normal self, there was no doubt that Steven would go over there and kill Brad with his bare hands and Jackie knew that he could and would do it.  
  
"Mommy!" Tiffany ran to her. Jackie picked her up, she was getting too big for her to do that much longer.  
  
"Hi, baby, --what are you doing?"  
  
"My R2-D2 and C3-PO puzzle that Eric bought me."  
  
"When you finish it, we can get it framed for you."  
  
"Cool." She ran back to her spot on the floor.  
  
"Hi Steven," Jackie kissed him on the lips as if she were gone for fifteen years and not two hours, "I missed you."  
  
"Are you okay?" He asked  
  
"Yes, never better." Hyde didn't know if he believed her or not.  
  
"I'm in the mood for pizza, do you want your usual garden salad?"  
  
'You better say yes, or he'll know something is wrong' "Sure. Tiffany, would you like to go with Steven?"  
  
She put her last piece (R2-D2's scope eye) in the puzzle. "Okay! Can we get cheese sticks?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"You guys have fun." Jackie said as the phone rang. She waited for them to be out the door before answering it.  
  
"Hi, Jackie, what's up?"  
  
"Hi, Donna. You sound very tired. How's Eric doing?" She knew he went straight from their honeymoon in Bermuda back into rehab and Donna did not want Hyde or the Forman's to know about it.  
  
"Compared to the state he was in the last time he entered rehab, I'd like to think better."  
  
"He'll pull though." Although, Jackie did know of a great number of people who were in and out of rehab centers for their whole lives. She hoped Eric could beat his demons and those odds that he was destined to a life of more relapses and rehab attempts.  
  
"I hope so. How are you and Hyde? Did you two decide on a wedding date?"  
  
"Good. Probably before September."  
  
"Are you okay, Jackie? You don't sound like yourself."  
  
"I'm fine. I just have something important to think about." She could just picture telling Donna this and Donna freaking out that "a man has no right to make a woman to submit herself to his urges in order for an adoption to go through".  
  
"Do you want to talk about it?"  
  
"Listen, Donna, I have to go. I'll talk to you later. Be there for Eric- he needs you. Bye." Jackie hung up before Donna could respond.  
  
For the first time in her life Jackie actually wished that she was Donna.  
  
A week later  
  
For Love  
  
Jackie looked at the clock-four o'clock am right on the dot. It was becoming her wake up time. She tried her best not to wake up Steven who kept asking her if she was all right. He actually thought when he let an insecurity or two get the better of him that she regretted choosing him over Kelso. Jackie reassured him that, that was not true. She loved Steven more than any other person in the world with the exception of her daughter. Jackie quietly walked to the bathroom she needed a scalding shower to drown out the coldness in her soul. What a complete waste of space Brad was. She thought about how they met. It was at a fundraising party that Jackie helped organize. She couldn't help but be attracted to his collegiate upper class summer home in the Hamptons looks. She realized now that she was nothing but a conquest for his Frat buddies and arm candy for cotillions at the Country Club. Little by little she had forgotten about Steven and Michael and settled into this extremely wealthy (so much opulence that it made her background seem like the Forman's!) cover of Town and Country lifestyle. If it weren't for her job she would have been the typical society matron. She was thankful for the nights when Brad wouldn't be home and she didn't have to please him. The only good thing that came from his pleasure was their daughter. Jackie never thought she'd be someone's Mother but she loved being pregnant and had the much talked about glow that everyone says you have when you're with-child. Brad didn't seem interested in her pregnancy. All he cared about was another dividend. She could've used Donna's friendship then, she felt so alone. The caring women at work was not the same. She was alone in the apartment when her water broke and it was the doorman James who had to rush upstairs and put her in a taxi. She never felt so alone in her life. It was worth it when Tiffany was born, when they put her screaming, squirming body in her arms. Brad didn't come the hospital for a day and a half and by that time she was ready to be discharged and was very withdrawn with his own daughter which in retrospect Jackie realized she should've divorced him then. Now it's all come down to  
  
sort-of consensual sex with her ex-husband so that Steven, her soulmate, could adopt Tiffany. Jackie knew that Brad held more important connections than she did-and those judges and lawyers could use those petty crimes against Steven in court making him seem unfit. She didn't know what to do, other than to submit herself. There was that nagging thought in the back of her mind that what if Brad went against his word? What if this was one big lie to get them in bed together and nothing more? She turned off the shower, she was as red as the fire in her eyes, she forcefully grabbed her towel off the hook and quickly drying her body. She hated Brad Worthington, she hated how Tiffany had his surname, and she hated herself for what she was going to do to rectify the situation. But she was doing it all for love. She was doing it all for Steven Hyde, to give him the family that he had always deserved.  
  
A week later:  
  
"What's the matter, Jackie? Are you sure you aren't harboring feelings for Kelso?" Hyde asked over the dinner table, Tiffany was with one of her playgroup friends allowing Hyde to be candid.  
  
Jackie looked up as if awoken from her thoughts she was doing that a lot lately.  
  
"No, Steven. Listen, we can't get married next week."  
  
"Why?" He tried not to get on the defensive  
  
"Because, Donna won't be able to fly in to be my maid-of-honor. She's out of town on business." Jackie felt bad lying to Steven about that, as well, but she couldn't exactly tell him Eric was in rehab again.  
  
"Who needs a fancy wedding? We can elope," He tried to hold her hand but she pulled away, causing Hyde to lose his cool. "Damn, Jackie! Just what the hell is going on with you?"  
  
Jackie stood up, "I don't want to talk about it, Steven, okay? You just have to believe me when I say that I love you." She felt her eyes water.  
  
"This isn't love, it's your Jackie mind games." Hyde stood up and walked away from her.  
  
"Steven, where are you going?" Now she was crying.  
  
"Out."  
  
"You don't understand-I love you."  
  
Hyde never being one to look back just grabbed his jean jacket and went out the door leaving Jackie in a puddle of tears.  
  
"Steven---"  
  
~Jackie's Flashback~1979 Forman basement (original scene by me not taken from any of the episodes)  
  
Jackie lived for moments like these. Her and Hyde had the basement all to themselves. Eric and Donna were off being annoyingly happy somewhere, while Kelso and Fez were busy trying to make their adolescence last longer. She rested her head on his chest feeling complete.  
  
"I love you, Steven." She said, almost in a whisper  
  
"I love you too, Jackie." He never thought he could love someone, let alone popular and perky Jackie Burkhart. Steven Hyde was the farthest you could get from what the popular cliques deemed acceptable. If they didn't like A-V club treasurer-secretary Eric Forman then they certainly didn't like hubcap stealing, government hating, school ditching, hatred of all things authority Hyde. They were a total mismatch on the surface but deeper where true feelings lay they had a great deal in common. Even though she came from money she too had lousy parents. Even though she was popular she sometimes hated being a part of the cliques. Even though others thought "Why are Jackie and Hyde a couple?" The both of them knew it was only their feelings towards each other that counted.  
  
She could hear sounds coming from upstairs. She didn't want to share him with the gang.  
  
"Quick, Steven, before everyone comes downstairs, let's go to your room."  
  
"You know, Jackie," He kissed her on the lips, "I like your style."  
  
~End flashback~  
  
Jackie didn't know what to expect when she brought Tiffany home from her playgroup. Did Steven return? She was so afraid to open the door but had to be strong for her little girl, who was clutching a miniature Stormtrooper key chain that said, "these are not the droids that you're looking for" when you squeezed it driving her crazy.  
  
"Mommy, are you sad?"  
  
"No, honey, why?" It was stupid to lie to children they could always tell if you were lying to them. Especially if you were lying to protect them.  
  
"You were crying."  
  
"Oh, I wasn't crying, baby. The tears were from my allergies."  
  
The door was opened and it didn't seem like Steven was back from wherever the hell is that he went.  
  
Jackie let Tiffany run and play inside the apartment and sat in her office for privacy. This was insane. It was the year 2000 and her well connected, wealthy dill hole of an ex-husband was using her as a pawn in order for Steven to legally adopt Tiffany. It was her choice-Brad made that point clear, still she wondered if he was lying? What if she succumbed to him only to find out that he still would drag Steven's name and small, petty criminal record through the mud? She let Steven Hyde storm out of the apartment. What if he didn't come back?  
  
All their lives they've had set backs. Sometimes it was her fault, other times it was his fault, and sometimes in situations like these it was the fault of the Gods, she supposed. Maybe, they weren't meant to stay together. Maybe all they were good for was a bunch of quick f****. She thought about calling Donna, but she really did not want to tell anyone the situation her ex-husband put her in and besides Donna had enough problems with making sure this was Eric's last stand in a rehab center. She always thought Steven Hyde was someone to behold he was strong and didn't believe in authority. The only adults she ever saw him respect were Red and Kitty Forman. When she smoked her first joint in The Circle she felt like she was accepted into the group and not just because she was "Kelso's girlfriend". She and Donna became closer because of all the time they spent in the basement. It seemed a waste that they had stopped their friendship when they got older. She didn't know what to do. She didn't want to lose Steven (yet again) not when they were this close to being married. She wanted her daughter to have a real Father figure. Jackie heard the door open and close. Steven was back. She wanted to bolt out of her chair and run to him giving him the most passionate embrace, but she couldn't. She pretended to be typing on her computer when she felt his presence in the doorway. 'He's going to break my heart, I know it.' She could feel the tears well up in her eyes. It always ended in tears for Jackie Burkhart.  
  
"Jackie." Hyde said to her not moving from the doorway.  
  
She turned around trying desperately not to cry, "Steven---?" She let his name hang in the air.  
  
She sighed. She knew what was coming. Sometimes when you took a risk, no matter how well you planned it, now matter how often you prayed, no matter how positive you tried to keep your outlook sometimes it would all backfire in your face anyway.  
  
"I'm leaving." 'Yes, I knew that was coming'  
  
Jackie stood up frozen in her spot as well. She wanted to tell him "No", but she couldn't. She wanted to kiss him, but she couldn't.  
  
"Fine." She tried to say with no emotion. 'Don't go, Steven, I love you.'  
  
"I better start packing my things." He turned to leave.  
  
'When he's gone, I'm going to cry an ocean and eat a whole carton of ice cream'.  
  
"You better."  
  
Hyde was stunned he was expecting more of a fight from her.  
  
ONE HOUR LATER:  
  
This one of the hardest things Steven Hyde had to do. It broke his cynical, jaded heart. Tiffany was coloring at her tiny, pink drawing desk.  
  
"Hi, Tiffany."  
  
"Hi, Steven. I'm coloring you a picture."  
  
"You are? Very cool. I have to talk to you first though." Tiffany knew that tone. It always meant grown ups were going to say something important and it was usually always bad.  
  
She continued to color, almost going outside of the lines.  
  
"I have to go. Your Mommy and I are not getting married."  
  
She stood up, "Why?"  
  
"Because sometimes adults change their minds." That sounded so lame to Hyde. The kind of stupid statement that any intelligent child could see right through.  
  
"Don't you love Mommy anymore?" She didn't want to cry.  
  
He picked her up and put her on his lap. "I'll always love your Mother. Sometimes you can love someone with all of your heart and you cannot be with that person."  
  
"I like you, Steven." She started to cry.  
  
"I like you, too, Tiffany." 'Damn Forman, he can still send her stuff in the mail, because he's not linked to Jackie, but I have to cut off all ties to this sweet child. F***.'  
  
Tiffany slid off Hyde's lap and ran out the room crying for Jackie. He felt terrible about the whole situation.  
  
He slowly walked to her table and ripped out the half finished picture of a farmer pushing an apple cart in a field. Tiffany made the apples red, green, and yellow and was starting to color the wheelbarrow brown. He folded it in half and put it in his jeans pocket.  
  
Hyde had one suitcase and his old Army green duffle bag. He would get the rest of his things later. He was about to go out the door when he heard Jackie reasoning with the closet.  
  
"Please, come out, Tiffany."  
  
"NO!"  
  
"I'll call maintenance." Her housekeeper lost several of the keys and Jackie didn't get them replaced.  
  
"I DON'T CARE!"  
  
Hyde put his bags down, trying his best not to look at Jackie.  
  
"Come out of the closet, Tiffany."  
  
"Are you and Mommy getting married?"  
  
"I'm afraid not." Jackie and Hyde said in unison.  
  
"THEN I'M NOT COMING OUT!"  
  
"Okay, fine. But you'll miss supper tonight and I was going to take you to the Hard Rock since you had a great time there when Donna and Eric took you." "I DON'T CARE!"  
  
"We're sorry this hurts you, baby. It hurts the both of us, too."  
  
Silence.  
  
"Are you all right in there?" Hyde asked looking for something to break the lock with.  
  
"NO!" She was so stubborn. Wonder where she got that from?  
  
"I'm calling maintenance they'll open the door." Jackie loved her daughter but was really in no mood for a temper tantrum.  
  
"I WANT TO VISIT ERIC AND DONNA!"  
  
What could Hyde say in response to that?  
  
"I'm sure you'll be able to visit them soon."  
  
"Maintenance is coming up. I'm going to wait by the elevators. Stay by her, Steven." Jackie still couldn't look him the eye and almost tripped over his suitcase.  
  
"If you open the door I'll take you out for ice cream before I leave." That was a sh*** reply and Hyde knew it. He hated those cutesy bribes that adults did with children. It was like torn pages from an old cheesy sitcom script.  
  
Silence again.  
  
"Tiffany, are you okay?"  
  
"NO!" She sat against the wall in the dark closet pressing against her Stormtrooper keychain.  
  
"These are not the droids that you're looking for". 


	11. Stranger Things Have Happened

Chapter 11 Stranger Things Have Happened  
  
St Louis September 2000  
  
Donna put the orange juice glasses on the tray as she went to surprise Eric with breakfast in bed. He was finished with his latest and hopefully last time in a rehab center. Kitty was starting to get suspicious on Eric's whereabouts and he would have to call his Mother from his cell phone saying he was away on business. They found someone interested in the house and Donna didn't want to tell Eric, she trusted him that he wouldn't run to drugs, she just wished that she didn't have to tell him.  
  
"Hi," Eric said when Donna returned, "You made me breakfast?"  
  
It was always great to see him smiling and healthy just like she always remembered him to be. He sat up as she put the tray down.  
  
"It's only toast and orange juice." She kissed him on the cheek.  
  
"After all the bad food I've had to endure recently. This is like a five star restaurant."  
  
Donna smiled. "I got a call from your Mother. They might have a buyer for the house." She drank her orange juice.  
  
Eric put his toast down, "Oh, really? Looks like we'll have to go for a visit and see what I want to salvage."  
  
Donna could tell that this clearly disappointed him.  
  
"Eric, I know it's sad, but sometimes it's best to move on and if your folks want to move to Florida-don't you think that we should support them?" She tried to choose her words carefully.  
  
"I just never thought Red and Kitty would even want to sell the house. I don't know, it's like giving up on your memories. I could see if it was all bad, but despite Dad's disciplinary techniques it wasn't." Eric couldn't finish his toast.  
  
"It's not personal."  
  
"I know, but it might as well be." Eric lifted the tray and put it on the floor and proceeded to get dressed.  
  
"You know if you are going to miss the old house so bad, why don't you buy it?" Donna suggested, deciding to get dressed herself.  
  
"I don't think that's a good idea. You don't buy a house in situations like this, Donna, you inherit a house."  
  
"Is that what you're upset about, Eric? You wanted Kitty and Red to leave the house to you?"  
  
He put his blue sweater on and smoothed down his hair.  
  
"Yeah-I always thought we'd be in Point Place-and I know that's not what you wanted, forever."  
  
Donna put her arms around Eric. When left alone to his own devices and not under the influences of his friends or toxins he was always a teenager going on middle age. Now his chronological age finally caught up to his mindset.  
  
"I love you," She kissed his neck, "Don't worry about it. If you really want the house you'll put a bid in."  
  
"I love you, too, Donna. When we're done getting dressed let's go out for a drive somewhere."  
  
"Sounds good to me." She was glad to him alive and in one piece even if he was a little neurotic she loved him more now than she did back then.  
  
2 Weeks Later  
  
"He looks good." Jackie said to Donna as her and Eric decided to visit Jackie and Tiffany for the weekend. They were in the kitchen area having coffee and cake.  
  
"I know. I'm very proud of Eric, he did some hypnosis therapy and I believe its really made a difference," Donna didn't know whether to bring this up or not but she had to ask, "Jackie, you don't have to answer this if you don't want to. What happened----?"  
  
"I don't want to talk about it, Donna."  
  
"I don't get it, you two survived Kelso interrupting your wedding, of course, that was due to your ex-husband's involvement. Why would you two break up?"  
  
"I said," Jackie stood up to put her coffee cup in the sink, "I don't want to talk about it." Tiffany ran into the kitchen and Jackie was relieved to have a change of subject.  
  
"Mommy,"  
  
"What do you need, sweetie?"  
  
"Can Eric and I go out for ice cream?"  
  
"Sure. Be good."  
  
"I will. Bye, Donna."  
  
Sometimes Donna wondered why couldn't herself and Eric just adopt a child? She was confident he wouldn't touch drugs again.  
  
"She's so cute. Are you sure you don't want to talk about what happened between you and Hyde?"  
  
"I'm sure." There was nothing left to be said.  
  
Eric didn't want to do this but Tiffany left one of her favorite toys in her Father's office and he knew a high class snot like Brad would rather Fed-Ex it to his daughter then to deliver it in person so instead of going out for ice cream they had to go to his office first. He wondered if Brad would remember that he was the one who whacked him in the legs with a golf club?  
  
"You go see your Dad, I have to use the little boy's room." Eric whispered when they got off the elevator. She laughed Eric was too silly. He was tall like an adult but he acted like a child himself.  
  
"Okay!" She ran off.  
  
Donna decided if Jackie didn't want to talk it was no good stewing in that large apartment all afternoon especially with Eric and Tiffany gone. Even though Donna didn't like doing this sort of thing she suggested she go get a makeover. Jackie reluctantly agreed knowing full well about what Donna was trying to do.  
  
"And since I'm your friend, I expect freebees from your counter." She just hoped they did a tasteful makeover.  
  
"It wouldn't hurt you to wear more mascara." Jackie sighed, her heart not into it.  
  
Revelations  
  
The décor of the restroom was quite reserved, there were mahogany doors around the urinals. Eric heard the front door swing open and a guy start shouting in his cell phone. It was Jackie's ex. He was such a bastard leaving his daughter alone in his office.  
  
"I don't appreciate having to use the EMPLOYEES bog. Next time you want to take apart my toilet," Eric laughed under his breath, god forbid, he had to use a non-private restroom. "You do it off hours or you're fired." Brad dialed another number as Eric didn't want to leave the restroom until he did, now being grateful that these stalls had doors. Brad seemed cross that he had to leave a message on Jackie's machine.  
  
"Jackie-I just came back from my European trip to find out you dumped that good for nothing Hyde character. You were smart to dump him. I don't want that loser raising MY child. However the part of the deal where you f*** me, we could still do."  
  
'What?' Eric thought, he waited for Brad to leave before exiting the men's room. He quickly washed his hands and was greeted by a smiling Tiffany carrying her handheld computer game.  
  
"Did you see your Dad?" Eric asked  
  
"No, he was in a meeting."  
  
"What kind of ice cream do you want?"  
  
"Chocolate." She beamed  
  
"You can't have ice cream without sprinkles." Eric advised.  
  
"Rainbow!"  
  
Eric realized he was privy to knowledge that he really shouldn't have been aware of. He and Hyde may never get their friendship back but if Jackie was under some sort of sexual bribe from her ex-husband it explained why her and Hyde broke up. (Yet again) Jackie didn't want Hyde to know about this "deal" because Hyde would have come down here and kicked his blue blood a**. He had to do something. He just didn't know what. Jackie was miserable and she deserved to be happy. Eric pictured Hyde being just as miserable and he too deserved to be happy. Regardless of the status of their friendship. God would not have had him in that restroom if he wasn't meant to overhear Brad on his cell phone. He just wasn't sure if he should talk to Donna first or just go ahead do something. He could mull the idea around in his brain while eating a hot fudge sundae. Eric realized he never could've had these concerned thoughts on a high zoned out mind.  
  
Donna tried not to fidget around in the chair as the makeup artist kept adding more deep blue pigment to her eyes. She favored Earth tones and minimal cosmetics. The blue better be sheer because it was too heavy of a color in the compact. When the male makeup artist started to put a burnt orange color on her cheeks, Donna put her hand up to stop him.  
  
"That color is way too dark."  
  
He explained it's what all the top models were wearing and Donna replied, "I am not a model." Wishing the old Jackie would chime in, "You're telling me." instead of resting her back against the wall watching. Donna requested a light rosy shade for her cheeks instead.  
  
She had to get to the bottom of why Jackie let Hyde go (again). Their relationship seemed more of a soap opera then hers and Eric's ever was.  
  
LATER  
  
Eric covered Tiffany with a blanket as she fell asleep on the sofa. They watched some of the Batman marathon on TVLand, she said it wasn't as "cool" as Star Wars. He figured Donna and Jackie decided to go out shopping or some other female bonding activity. Eric sat on a chair and grabbed a magazine off the table while waiting for Donna and Jackie to return. It didn't take him long to fall asleep. That's how Donna found him ten minutes later.  
  
"Hey," She kissed his cheek, "Eric, wake up."  
  
Jackie quietly went over to her daughter and picked her up. It was too early for her bedtime she needed to eat supper and get a bath before going to bed.  
  
"Donna, I am up," Eric yawned as he rubbed his eyes, "I was just resting my eyes. Let's go outside and talk."  
  
She sensed an urgency in his voice and hoped he wasn't thinking about doing Coke again.  
  
"Okay."  
  
"By the way, you look very pretty." He kissed her on the lips.  
  
"Thank you, I got a makeover."  
  
"You didn't need a makeover." Eric said as they went out the front door and stood by the elevators.  
  
"What is it, Eric?"  
  
He twisted his wedding ring as he stood against the wall.  
  
"I know why Jackie broke up with Hyde."  
  
"What? How? I spent all day trying to get her to open up."  
  
"No one told me. I overheard her ex on his cell phone."  
  
"You saw Brad?"  
  
"Tiffany wanted to go to his office because she left a toy there, and I was in the restroom and he came in and I heard him on his phone." Eric went into what he heard the executive dill hole say and watched Donna's face twist with anger.  
  
"That disgusting pig! He can't do this-and what's more why would Jackie put up with that?" Donna turned the doorknob to get back into the apartment it was locked.  
  
Eric still had the key in his pocket from when he took Tiffany out.  
  
"I suppose you are going to face Jackie with this."  
  
"Damn right, Eric."  
  
One of the things that Eric admired about Donna was her strong determined will. He didn't admire it much when they were separated and eventually divorced.  
  
"Hey, Donna, how about just one kiss, since it looks like we won't be going out tonight?" Eric put his arms around her and pulled her close to him.  
  
"Just one," She tried not to melt too much into his arms, "Why don't you take Tiffany to the movies tonight so I can talk to Jackie without any interruptions?" She asked as if the little girl were theirs.  
  
"Later tonight you'll be begging for this 100% Coke free body."  
  
"Eric," Donna tried not laugh, "Just open the door."  
  
Twenty minutes later  
  
Donna watched as Jackie pretended to be interested in straightening her bookshelf. She had a housekeeper, did she think Donna forgot?  
  
"Thank you, Donna for having Eric take out Tiffany tonight. I need the break."  
  
"Jackie, sit down. I know why you broke up with Hyde."  
  
"What?" Jackie was too nervous to sit down. She was bluffing. How could Donna possibly know?  
  
"I know."  
  
"How?" She whispered. The lumberjack had to be bluffing. Had to be.  
  
"Eric had to take Tiffany to Brad's office---"  
  
"ERIC TALKED TO BRAD?" Jackie raised her voice  
  
"No, he overheard him leave a phone message," Donna stood up and went to the answering the machine and played it back, "This one."  
  
--"Jackie-I just came back from my European trip to find out you dumped that good for nothing Hyde character. You were smart to dump him. I don't want that loser raising MY child. However the part of the deal where you f*** me, we could still do."--  
  
Jackie couldn't deny this to anyone anymore; she put her arms around Donna and cried.  
  
"Why didn't you tell me?" She knew Hyde would have killed Brad with his bare hands.  
  
"Donna, It may look like I have money, and compared to others I do. BUT I don't have the connections that Brad has-and he was going to hang Steven with every petty offense he has ever done so the adoption wouldn't go through. How could I do that to him?"  
  
Donna gave Jackie some tissues from the box that was on the end table.  
  
"You call your lawyer tomorrow and save that message because your well connected jerk of an ex-husband just incriminated himself. Tonight you call Hyde. No better yet, you-" Donna's cell phone rang, "Don't go anywhere, Jackie. Hello? No, he's out babysitting Tiffany. What?! Really?! That's great news and it couldn't come at a better time. We'll see you soon."  
  
"Who was that?"  
  
"Jackie, come with me, you are going to pack your suitcase and not ask any questions.-but first we're getting my cassette recorder and make a copy of that message in case you accidentally erase it."  
  
Jackie's head was swirling who just phoned Donna and why did she want her to pack a suitcase?  
  
"Donna! Explain."  
  
"Jackie! Later. You'll thank me soon, just trust me, okay?"  
  
"Was it Steven? Because if it was you are wasting time and I won't go anywhere."  
  
Donna sighed she was about to lose her temper much like when she left Eric at Highpoint.  
  
"Jackie, ENOUGH! You say you love Hyde-Eric and I both know about what Brad was trying to do-yet now you won't go to back to him?  
  
Even though we have proof of Brad's admission. You love Hyde and I'm quite sick of the DRA-MA that is StevenHydeAndJackieBurkhart. You have a little girl to raise and you better start thinking on the messages you are sending her!"  
  
Rather than get angry Jackie sat on the barstool, "You're right, Donna. I do love Steven and-Tiffany, I would never hurt my little girl. I don't know how you wound up being the genius? Okay, does my going away mean I have to leave my daughter? For once can't she come too?"  
  
"Of course, she can. She and Eric should be back soon."  
  
"Maybe you can call him at the movies so they don't go out to eat after?"  
  
"Jackie people who use cell phones while the movie is on are rude."  
  
"Send Eric a text message."  
  
"Good idea."  
  
Jackie didn't know where it came from but she went over to hug Donna to show her that she appreciated her for helping her out in all this. "Just don't tell me you love me."  
  
"Shut up. Now come on, help me pack!"  
  
JFK airport (two hours later)  
  
"Our plane leaves in forty five minutes." Eric said to her while handing her a cup of tea.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Now do you care to tell me-where Jackie and Tiffany are going?" They were  
  
able to use the private jet. Jackie felt odd using it now since Brad has become even more unbearable but Donna said as long as she had access to it, she shouldn't be afraid to use it, after all it was part of her divorce settlement.  
  
"I can't, Eric, it's a surprise."  
  
"Oh-I get it---are Jackie and Hyde getting back together?"  
  
"I hope so, they've been through a lot-and I don't just mean now-"  
  
"Believe it or not, I do agree with you. But there's something else you aren't telling."  
  
"That's why it's a surprise, Eric. Are you going to eat all of those M&M's?"  
  
"Here. Well, whatever you and Jackie have cooked up, I hope it works."  
  
"Me too." They sat down in those uncomfortable blue plastic molded chairs to await the boarding call to St. Louis.  
  
And Down the Stretch  
  
Jackie took a deep breath as she focused on making sure Tiffany was all presentable in her blue dress and matching Mary Jane's.  
  
"Are you ready?" Jackie asked Tiffany, but in reality she needed someone to ask her if SHE was the one that was ready.  
  
"Yes, Mommy! Why do I have to be dressed up?" That was the millionth (or it felt like it) time she asked that.  
  
"Because it's very important." Her hands were shaking so bad that she could barely ring the doorbell.  
  
"Hello, we've been expecting the two of you!"  
  
"Hi, Mrs. Forman!"  
  
"Is Steven here?" Jackie whispered when they got inside.  
  
"He's upstairs, sleeping."  
  
"Mrs. Forman, did you make that other phone call?"  
  
"Yes. He's in the basement with Red."  
  
Tiffany looked out the window, "Eric and Donna are outside!"  
  
"Donna, did YOU put a bid in for the house?" Eric asked  
  
While they were waiting to board their flight to St. Louis when they were paged to get on the next flight to Kenosha instead. He knew this had to do with Donna's secrecy. Rather than fight it, he went along with it, wondering what the Hell was going on? He hated being out of the loop.  
  
Hyde opened up his eyes to see Tiffany standing next his side of the bed. Was he in New York? Did he dream all this?  
  
"Hi, Steven! You have to put your suit on!"  
  
'What the Hell?' "I'm in no mood for your Mommy's mind games."  
  
She looked at him confused. "I'm sorry, Tiffany," Hyde looked up and saw the suit (no doubt Mrs. Forman had everything to do with it being on the closet door.) Tiffany jumped up and it fell into her arms.  
  
"I'll just put on the jacket."  
  
"I had to put on Mary Jane's!"  
  
He laughed, "What's going on?"  
  
Mrs. Forman happily entered the room, "Good, you're up, Steven!"  
  
"This is for your own good." Donna came in as Eric trailed behind her. It finally dawned on him what they were all up to! This could blow up over all their faces. This was not going to work. No one tells Steven Hyde what to do.  
  
"Where's Mommy?" Tiffany asked  
  
"Right outside, sweetie."  
  
Hyde almost fell off the bed when he saw the Priest come in, followed by Red escorting Jackie down the "aisle".  
  
"You and Mommy are getting married right NOW, Steven!" Tiffany burst.  
  
"If that's what you want?" Jackie asked in the most quiet voice anyone ever heard her use.  
  
"It's what I want," Hyde let a small smile go over his face, "It's all I ever wanted."  
  
END 


	12. BridesCredits

Credits for Here Come The Brides By Carol (twiniitowers on FF net)  
  
Thanks to everyone who reviewed my story: (In order of review)  
  
Elina, hydejackie4ever, Candy.7, Sunny, Fezlover, Raivenn, SpaceyJ, JackieHyde, wolviesrogue, Allybally, Nicole, Kats02980416, SHOWFANATIC, Heavenly Slayer, and Katies17  
  
Carsey-Werner and Fox Television own the characters of- Jackie Burkhart, Joanne, Fez, Eric Forman, Kitty Forman, Laurie Forman, Red Forman, Bud Hyde, Edna Hyde, Steven Hyde, Casey Kelso, Michael Kelso, Bob Pinciotti, Donna Pinciotti, and Midge Pinciotti. All other characters and names created by Me.  
  
And a special dedication to the people whose characters inspire us to write the fan fiction in the first place:  
  
To the whole cast of That '70s Show especially to the gang in the basement played by: Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, Laura Prepon, and Wilmer Valderrama.  
  
And as always keep on writing, there's a lot of awesome stories on this website and I'm glad we have this outlet.  
  
Carol-May 22, 2003 


End file.
